JONTY: It was a quiet weekend on the sporting front for Marcus and I Dave, with all turf cricket basically washed out. Dave, by your measure, something happening two years in a row makes it a tradition so I’ll call Saturday’s washout traditional in the cricketing landscape. You were in the city getting brownie points with Kellie on the weekend, so the only game from a local perspective any of us were able to see was Marcus seeing Casey defeat Dandenong in Premier Cricket. So, give us a little bit of a run down, not only on that game but also Casey and Dandenong’s prospects this season as you see them, Marcus.
DAVE: Hang on…Marcus just got back from a nice break in Penang. How was that mate?
MARUCS: The mid-30s of Penang were quite a contrast from the bitterly cold winds and grey skies at Casey Fields but this is why we love cricket. It was an interesting contest. I’m not sure why Dandenong batted as slowly as they did, chasing 260. We see at the top level that target is extremely achievable in one-day cricket. Dandenong is going through a bit of a reset with a new opener at the top replacing Tom Donnell, who has moved into the coaching space. They finished 23 runs short. The highlight was the battle between Ruwantha Kellapotha and Brett Forsyth. Interestingly, Forsyth hit him for boundaries off the first ball of four of his overs; he tried to set the tone for the over and Kellapotha would rein him in the longer the over went. You could tell it was two cricketers a class above nearly everyone else. It’s a strong Casey lineup too with Ash Chandrasinghe joining Kellapotha in red and white. Harrish Kannan and Yash Pendekar also both played for the Swans. Dandenong is going through a tricky period but there are positive vibes coming out of the club under Donnell, a loved figure and stalwart but they’re probably going to struggle this year. Casey South Melbourne will be there or thereabouts again; they only just missed out based on a series of close losses last season. They will expect to be in the mix.
DAVE: They were runners-up two seasons ago.
MARCUS: Indeed – in a summer of just one-day cricket.
DAVE: Jonty – when it comes to best action, something which bounced off the page was that three new clubs have joined the Casey Cardinia competition this year. One makes its debut this week in the one-day format, the Avengers, but the Melbourne Sixers had successful teams in B and D grades and Kerala Strikers had a team in E Grade, also successful. Great to welcome new teams on board. In Premier Division, it was great to see competitive cricket. Devon Meadows came up from District and had a great game with Merinda Park, which won by a couple of runs, and Clyde pushed Pakenham to the limit. There has been a great divide between the top four and bottom four recently but it looks to be evening out. And the two Sweeneys – Mick and Peter – both made 50s on debut.
JONTY: Batting three and four?
DAVE: Yes.
JONTY: Very good.
TO THE RECORD BOOKS
JONTY: On the note of some of those performances, we had Jake Fraser-McGurk on Sunday deliver something remarkable. He’s gone to South Australia for opportunity. He’s long been seen as a player with a lot of potential but it hasn’t quite yet materialised, but it was a coming-of-age herculean knock in many ways: 125 runs off 38 deliveries. A 29-ball century. That’s the fastest ever 50-over ton in any first-class competition around the world. On that note, who are some players who are ready to break records or go big in your competitions this season. Dave?
DAVE: My first one centres around PlayHQ. Kooweerup has a new player this year and on PlayHQ, he has five names with a total of 47 letters. That has to be a world record! How can I put that into an article? Nine, seven, 12, six and 13 letters. The real one from a cricketing front, Bevin Corneille. I know nothing about him but he made 104 off 111 balls, 11 fours and a six, and when I interviewed the Merinda Park coach two weeks ago, he said: “this bloke is something special.” He was coming off a century in a practice match. I don’t care what level you play: if you’re making two tons in two or three hits, you’re a decent player so I’m really looking forward to seeing Bevin Corneille break some records for Merinda Park.
JONTY: Very good. Marcus?
MARCUS: Obviously with the DDCA missing the first week it will be difficult for players to break records but, if I had to pick one, it’s Roshen Silva, a new recruit for Buckley Ridges who is still playing first class cricket for Sri Lanka. He’s only three or four years removed from his last test…and he played 12 in total. With the small boundaries at Park Oval, he’ll be one to watch. There’ll be opportunities at the top of the order as well with DJ Watson and Mahela Udewatte making way. He’ll slot right in and make Buckley a strong force once again.
JONTY: The first three that come to mind from my point-of-view are Himesh Galhenage Don from Lyndale who hit a 29-ball ton last year.
DAVE: McQuirk-ish.
JONTY: Pardon?
DAVE: McQuirk-ish.
JONTY: McGurk. Well, yeah, same number of balls. He’s hit and miss but when it comes off, he’s the best player at Turf 2 level to watch. He’s given a licence to play his natural game. There are high hopes for Mackenzie Gardner at HSD. I expect he’ll lead the competition runs tally this year. Harsaroup Singh as well, showed a lot for Cranbourne last season but he could breakthrough for a big century at some point given the amount of talent he has. He’ll have to step up with Cranbourne losing the Sweeney boys.
AUSTRALIAN SPORT HALL OF FAME
JONTY: Marcus was keeping up with the news while on holidays in Penang and tells us there were seven new inductees announced last week which got us thinking which players would be worthy additions in the coming years. Marcus?
MARCUS: The first two that came to mind were Ash Barty and Dylan Alcott. It’s been a pretty lean period for Australian tennis so to have those two’s success, and Alcott’s advocacy for the disabled community has been phenomenal, as well as being the best in his sport. The other one is Ange Postecoglou. His playing career doesn’t quite stack up but his credentials are coming with an absolute bullet. If he can take Tottenham to an English Premier League title – they’re first on the table eight games in, at time of recording – my god, that would go down as one of the all-time best achievements in Australian sport.
DAVE: Boys, Australian horse racing has its own hall of fame where it has jockeys and horses, but in the Australian sports hall of fame, no horse is in there. Is a horse eligible?
JONTY: No.
DAVE: Damien Oliver wins all these group ones. Without the cattle underneath, he’s not going to win those group ones. Therefore, should they be eligible?
JONTY: It would upset a lot of greenies. The knee-jerk is no. It doesn’t feel right.
DAVE: The reason I want it to happen is I want you to get up and interview Makybe Diva when she gets inducted, Jonty.
JONTY: Where would you draw the line – greyhounds? Harness racing?
DAVE: That’s the point. Does it specify anything like that in the hall of fame?
JONTY: Yeah, you have to be athletes.
DAVE: Does it say equine athletes? Canine athletes? In all seriousness, Damien Oliver has just announced his retirement and I think he would be worthy over time.
JONTY: The three others I had listed: alongside Dylan Alcott, Ellie Cole. Very similar in terms of her paving the way for other para-athletes. She’s won 17 Paralympic medals including six gold as a para-swimmer. Emma McKeon has to, at some stage. Eight-time world record holder, 11 medals, five gold at the Olympics. It’s a matter of when, not if, for her. She’s been a picture of consistency. If Ariarne Titmus wins next year it would put it beyond doubt but her golds in 2021 against Katie Ledecky are almost worth it on their own. Another shout out and his career has so long to go, and it doesn’t warrant it yet, but I would love the storyline of Peter Bol finding his way in there after all this unwarranted negative PR he’s received through no fault of his own in the last 18 months.
OFFSEASON
JONTY: Player movement never sleeps: who are the clubs from your competition who are either speaking a big game or need a big offseason to get ready for a big 2024?
MARCUS: I spoke to Daniel Charles from Officer at the grand final a couple of weeks ago and he told me they would target players from a higher grade to play at Officer next season. He followed through on that promise with Jake Gains and Brenton Hillard coming back from Noble Park. And Pakenham are going through a revolution with a new coach and a few new faces.
DAVE: Tooradin. Brent Macaffer isn’t going to be there next year. The rumours going around were that they were into Matt Buntine and Shane Savage, both with AFL experience over the last five years so I will be interested to see how Tooradin’s list looks because they looked a touch off the pace at the end of the season. And I can’t have a topic like that without including Warragul Industrials. Mark Collison, he’s a gun and their new coach. He has multiple league and club best and fairests and from all reports will tear the competition a new one as playing coach next year…even though he’s getting on.
JONTY: Well summed up. The one I’m interested in is Cranbourne. There’s a lot of talk around that a lot of their players are getting a lot of interest from a lot of other clubs. But we know how good they are at keeping their list together, so can they do it for another season and launch another assault for the premiership. Keysborough’s another one – they’re looking to transition their list after having a lot of ageing players on their list this season. Dean Rice comes in to help Chris Smith as coach so a name of his calibre will no doubt help lure potential recruits, but Cooper Sheppard is said to be on the market. Jamie Plumridge is a handy recruit from Devon Meadows.
DAVE: He was at Beacy initially so that’s interesting.
JONTY: Yeah okay. Well, he was more than handy at MPFNL Division 2 so I expect he’ll be very good at Southern Division 2.
DAVE: The other one is Jimmy Munro – he’s full time as a playing assistant at Cora Lynn next year. That’s a huge get for Cora Lynn. Keep an eye on them, they’ve signed most of their list from 2023 already.
