By Marcus Uhe
BERWICK
2022-23 Finish: 6th in Turf 1
Coach: Brad James
Captain: Jarrod Goodes
Ins: Jarrod Goodes, Matthew Hague, Corey Bevan, Matthew Robertson
Outs: Riley Siwes (Dandenong West), Andrew Perrin, James Wilcock, Damith Mapa Ramagala, Matthew Chasemore
Players to watch: Nicholas Shirt, Toby Wills, Jake Hancock
Home ground: Arch Brown Reserve
A number of returning faces and the growth of emerging talent is hoped to form the ideal blend for Berwick this season as it looks to right the wrongs of a disappointing summer in 2022/23.
From preliminary finalists the previous Summer to just three wins and missing finals altogether the next, a review of the cricket program from head coach Brad James and co forced a change in approach this campaign to get back to ‘the Berwick way’.
“It wasn’t our greatest year last year so we did a review into that and we probably got away from ourselves a little bit,” James said.
“Last year was just one of those ones where nothing fell into place for us.
“But we’ve also ignored developing our own.
“We’d always had one or two good recruits, but the rest had been Berwick people.
“Our twos had a good year last year winning the flag and our threes got done on the last ball, so we went to have a look at that and thought, ‘hang on, we’ve actually got the tools here’.
“People will look at it and see, yes, we’ve lost some players and all that, but I believe that by getting some Berwick people back, in Bevan and Robertson, adding Jarrod (Goodes) into the mix as well, we’ve covered what we lost.
“It was unfortunate to lose ‘Pez’ (Andrew Perrin) over preseason, but that can’t be helped.
“To get some more Berwick people in like Jarryd Wills as an ex-Berwick junior, we’ll get Matt Hague in as well, we’ll get back to what we want to stand for.”
Joining Perrin in departing the club is fellow veteran and local cricket icon Matt Chasemore, creating opportunities for the likes of Toby Wills and Cooper Fowkes to lead the attack in their place.
Fowkes and Nicholas Shirt both played in Berwick’s Turf 1 reserves premiership last summer and are expected to push for higher selection honours, while the returning veteran group will cover the losses in the playing list and support evergreen performers in Jordan Cleland and Jake Hancock with the bat.
A comfortable win over St Mary’s, a tight loss against eventual premiers Springvale South and a cruel rain-induced draw when they had North Dandenong on the ropes in the final game of the season made for a positive finish to the year at the Bear-cave, while success for other elements of the cricket program, such as the Turf 1 reserves and the T20 competition, has James confident they can respond this season.
“I think we’ve got a playing group at the moment that’s pulling in the right direction,” James said. “We’re hungry for team and personal success.
“We’ve added a couple of little bits and pieces in there and we’re not that far away.
“We did win the T20 and we started to come good late in the season.
Momentum is starting to come from that T20 win, we finished off the season well, and preseason has been pretty good.”
Fixture
Round 1 (one day): Saturday 7 October v Narre South (H)
Round 2 (one day): Sunday 15 October v Beaconsfield (A)
Round 3 (two day): Saturday 21 and Sunday 22 October v Hallam Kalora Park (H)
Round 4 (two day): Saturday 28 October and Saturday 4 November v St Mary’s (A)
Round 5 (two day): Saturday 11 and 18 November v Springvale South (A)
Round 6 (two day): Saturday 25 November and Saturday 2 December v North Dandenong (H)
Round 7 (one day): Saturday 9 December v Buckley Ridges (H)
Round 8 (one day): Saturday 16 December v Hallam Kalora Park (A)
Round 9 (one day): Saturday 6 January v St Mary’s (H)
Round 10 (one day): Saturday 13 January v North Dandenong (A)
Round 11 (two day): Saturday 20 and 27 January v Narre South (A)
Round 12 (two day): Saturday 3 and 10 February v Beaconsfield (H)
Round 13 (two day): Saturday 17 and Sunday 18 February v Buckley Ridges (A)
Round 14 (one day): Saturday 24 February v Springvale South (H)
