Connor Buttigieg
Wyndham Vale is eager for a season to build upon as the Victorian Turf Cricket Association division 5 club heads into the summer.
Looking to restore a winning formula through a talented flock of youth, the Vales will also look forward to celebrating the history of the club in what is their 40th anniversary season.
Returning for a fourth-consecutive season as captain-coach, Jay Dolliver is optimistic that the group can return to winning ways.
The Vales finished second bottom last season with just four wins.
Dolliver said the club has a couple of key goals heading into the summer.
“We’d like to rebuild a club culture after the loss of a lot of senior cricketers,” he said.
He mentioned building a winning culture through the young crop of players the club is developing.
Given the club milestone, Dolliver said there was an extra spur his group could gain from the occasion.
“I think every season brings the motivation to get positive results on field, but the 40-year anniversary should bring some more energy to playing for the pride of our club,” he said.
A clear focus for the Vales is to further develop the exciting youth who have been progressing through the senior ranks over the past couple of years.
“We’ve had no real recruits as such, but the natural progression of a heap of our juniors should hopefully fill the hole of the loss of our senior cricketers,” Dolliver said.
“We’ve had a number of improvers, but Michael Fry, Nathan Griffiths and Jacob Carter are the ones that have stood out after a solid pre-season.”
Arguably as important to the development of the up-and-coming players are their experienced counterparts, who will provide guidance as part of that development according to Dolliver.
“In the first XI there’s myself and Liam McLaughlin, who’ve played a lot of first XI cricket which will help,” he said.
“We also have a number of senior guys in the seconds with Craig Campbell and Brendan Cross, accompanied by captain Ben Funnell.”
The Vales will look to get their season off to a promising start this Saturday, after the first three weeks of cricket have had to be abandoned due to the non-favourable weather and unplayable grounds.
After a two-day game was originally fixtured for round three, it will instead become a one-dayer this Saturday.
Wyndham Vale will face Seabrook, which dropped down from division 4 last season, in what will be a good test for Dolliver’s young side.
In other matches scheduled for this Saturday, Sanctuary Lakes is set to play Melton Centrals.
In division 3, Werribee Centrals are set to face Sunshine Heights and Point Cook is set to play Pascoe Vale Hadfield.
Meanwhile In division 4, Bellbridge is set to play Gellibrand.
