It is the dawn of a new era for the Point Cook Cricket Club with a changing of leagues and a changing of coaches as Daryl Groves passes on the torch to Travis Bean with president Joe Polzella. 81288 Picture: KRISTIAN SCOTT
By LIAM TWOMEY
POINT Cook Cricket Club has opened a new chapter in its history with two of its teams joining the Victorian Turf Cricket Association.
The club’s first and second sides left the Williamstown and District Cricket Association last month and will compete in the B1 and B2 West Divisions of the VTCA for the coming season.
All other Point Cook senior teams will remain in the WDCA but at this stage it is unclear what grades they will compete in. The club’s 10 junior teams will continue to play in the Western Region Junior Cricket Association.
Point Cook president Joe Polzella said the decision was made to continue the vision of becoming a Premier Cricket Club.
“We are preparing to move into the new complex as of next season so infrastructure wise we will have the facilities and a clear progression path through the VTCA, up through the subbies (Sub District) and beyond,” he said.
“We have got a lot of very good juniors and that is one of the reasons that we’ve moved now.
One thought process was to have some success at A1 Turf level but at the end of the day we thought, we’ve got the facility, we’ve got a lot of great kids coming through, let’s just make the move now and we will prepare them a couple of years earlier.”
The decision to move leagues has already paid dividends as the club searched for a new senior coach. Polzella said a number of applicants had applied because of the decision to join the VTCA.
In what was a high calibre field, Point Cook was rapt to announce that Travis Bean would undertake the role for the new season, taking over from Daryl Groves.
The timing of the switch couldn’t be better with Point Cook preparing to move into its new facility based out of Saltwater Reserve.
The complex has two grassed ovals (one with a six wicket turf table and the other with a synthetic wicket), a fully enclosed five wicket practice net and an excellent pavilion including social area.
