Swans pitch for Premier comp

By Marc McGowan
CASEY-SOUTH Melbourne could field a side in the Premier Division of the Victorian Women’s Cricket Association next season.
Swans officials met with Premier Cricket manager Peter Binns and VWCA president and Cricket Victoria female high performance manager Marcella Torre last Thursday.
Casey-South Melbourne president Mick Taylor said last week that club officials were ‘very keen’ to establish a presence in the women’s competition.
“We hope to have an open meeting in the next few weeks for anyone interested,” Taylor said.
“It will probably take a couple of years, but ideally they (Cricket Victoria) want us to have a Premier firsts and seconds team.”
And that could be as soon as next summer or the following season when competition officials create a synthetic section to complement the top two Premier divisions.
There are currently nine Premier women’s clubs, but only four of those clubs have two teams.
Dandenong is one of those four clubs.
Binns said the ideal scenario was to have eight Premier women’s clubs and for all of them to field two sides.
He also revealed that grants of up to $10,000 have been touted – although yet to be signed off on – to encourage Victorian Premier Cricket clubs to establish presences in the top flight women’s competition.
“The senior level of men’s cricket hopefully has got a bit of stability and stronger clubs,” Binns said.
“That environment might encourage the right sort of mix with women’s sections getting involved.”
Binns said he and other Cricket Victoria officials would be right behind the Swans’ bid to develop teams for the VWCA.
But he also said it might make more sense for Casey-South Melbourne to wait an extra season to compete in a new synthetic ‘Division Three’ section.
“It really depends on what sort of levels of interest they can generate,” he said.
“There’s no use just getting together 11 girls and putting them into Premier firsts and getting pumped every week.
“We’ll be guided by Mick and Ridgy (head coach Mark Ridgway) and (committee member) Ross Hibbins as to where they think they’re at.
“If they believe they can hold their own in the senior levels then we’d be more than happy to give them the opportunity.”