New Altona Cricket Club co-coach Mark Mitchell. 81929_04 Picture: DAMJAN JANEVSKI
By MICHAEL ESPOSITO
AN OPENING bowler and a top-order batsman are on Altona Cricket Club’s wish list, but developing and retaining the club’s youngsters is the key to future-proofing the club, according to new coach Mark Mitchell.
Mitchell, who with co-coach Michael Davenport is taking over from Mark McAllion, said Altona would retain most of its core group, but may go into the 2012/2013 sub-district season with a less experienced line-up than last season.
Altona president Neil Birthisel said the club was still deciding whether to retain Sri Lankan opening bowler Gayan Fernando, while champion veteran Gordon McFarlane is still deciding whether or not he’ll continue. The club has lost opening batsman Ben Davies, who has been picked up by district club St Kilda.
“With regards to Gayan, we are still in contact with him, however we are keeping our options open,” Birthisel said.
“Gordon, he is a champion and with champions you let them make up their mind; we will know closer to the start of the season how his body is.”
Birthisel said having two former captain coaches of Altona working in tandem would give the club a greater capacity to develop juniors with one-on-one coaching.
Mitchell, who has been retired for two years, said some young players would need to step up for the First XI if the side wanted to play finals.
He said having two experienced coaches at the helm would give the club more scope to develop its younger players.
“Having two coaches gives us a few more resources that what mark (McAliion) might have had when he was coaching.
“There are two experienced coaches who come in with a clean slate, and everyone starts on the same level as far as we’re concerned,” he said.
“Obviously, you place a certain emphasis on last year’s performances over previous years, but a lot of is going to come down to effort at training and application.”
Top-line players John Varchione, Aaron Maynard and Lee Elmore will remain at Altona, but Mitchell would like to recruit a couple of proven performers to further strengthen the club.
“We are out talking, trying to attract players. Ideally, we’d love to pick up one or two players, but we’ll be attracting those players for the right reasons and not for the reasons for huge sums of money,” Mitchell said.
“It’s a great family club, which is why I’m back there, and I’ve really enjoyed my time there in the past, and I’m very happy to be back.”
