By Tyler Lewis
PULL QUOTE: “Internally, we’re expecting to win it this year… there is no doubt about that.” Devon Meadows coach Chris Cleef.
Devon Meadows is by no means settling for a runners-up finish in the District flight of the Casey Cardinia Cricket Association.
Former Frankston-Peninsula all-rounder Chris Cleef will coach the Panthers this season and has set the benchmark at securing the silverware.
The Panthers failed in straight-sets last season, after appearing to be a runaway contender with eventual premier – Officer – all season.
The conclusion to the season certainly hasn’t been forgotten by the men out of Glover Reserve.
“They’re feeling pretty dirty and sour about how things finished for them last year, just on their performances throughout the season to then finish off so poorly,” Cleef said.
“Those guys are pushing themselves pretty hard to finally win it.”
Cleef joins Devon Meadows with strong experience after spending the previous four seasons at Victorian Premier Cricket level.
While he comes with a sense of unknown about the competition, Cleef believes that unknown is going to remove the safety net and create a jostle for positions on the team.
“With there being unknown, it doesn’t bring in that boys-club mentality,” he said.
“The whole thing around ‘I have played first XI cricket for 10 years, so I should be playing it’.
“It’s all going to be performance based and how well they train, we are trying to field the best team possible.”
During his small sample size, Cleef has learned a bit about the competition he is stepping into.
“From my understanding, from what I have been told, it’s very even across both grades – Premier and District,” he said.
“There’s obviously a few standout teams in Premier, but other than that, it’s a very even competition across both.
“They’ve been very eager to train, learn and pick up new experiences, the new group coming through are super eager to learn from those with higher level experience.”
Devon Meadows will host Gembrook this Saturday to kick-start its season.
In other news across the competition:
Gembrook and NNG/Maryknoll have been elevated from a lower grade to the District flight, per the CCCA’s request for all 16 clubs to be represented in one of the District or Premier competitions.
Upper Beaconsfield skipper Jayden Joyce will miss the entirety of the season; he claimed 13 wickets at 32 last summer.
For Pakenham Upper Toomuc, the Yabbies will be without gun-bat Rajitha Ranaweera, who has signed with DDCA club North Dandenong.
Ranaweera crunched 625 runs at an average of 62.50 last season, passing 50 on five occasions – three hundreds and two half-centuries.
Ranaweera’s shoes will be hard to fill for the Yabbies, as his 17-game career at Pakenham Upper Toomuc grossed 1101 runs at an even average of 50.
2021/22 LADDER
Officer (Premiers)
Devon Meadows
Pakenham Upper Toomuc
Upper Beaconsfield (Runners-up)
Emerald
Lang Lang
ROUND 1 FIXTURE
NNG/Maryknoll v Lang Lang
Upper Beaconsfield v Cranbourne Meadows
Devon Meadows v Gembrook
Pakenham Upper Toomuc v Emerald
