First Love … Former Yarraville First XI captain Matthew Love will play for premier cricket club North Melbourne next season. 58558_23 Picture: KRISTIAN SCOTT
By Michael Esposito
MATTHEW Love, who captained Yarraville’s First XI side for the past two seasons, is having one more crack at top grade cricket.
Love recently signed to premier cricket club North Melbourne and is eager to help the club re-build after a disappointing 2010/11 season, which yielded just two wins.
“I left premier cricket keen to go to (sub-district cricket club) Yarraville and had two good years there … I really enjoyed it and I just thought it was now or never to go back and get back into the quality of premier cricket,” Love said.
“I’m dead-set keen and excited about getting back and playing the highest level cricket I can.”
The 32-year-old’s Footscray Edgewater connections lured him to North Melbourne. Kangaroos coach Michael O’Sullivan, who was previously in charge of the Victorian Bushrangers, coached Love at Footscray-Edgewater and the two have remained close friends, while Carl Sandri, who also played with Love at the Bulldogs, has come across to North Melbourne after a season with Essendon.
“I’m good mates with Carl so I’m always in contact with him, so I guess it was a fairly mutual decision in the end really.”
Love is not expecting to single-handedly lead North Melbourne to success, but believes he can make a prolonged contribution to the side.
“The body’s going fine so if form is holding up then I couldn’t put a limit on (how long I’ll play). I’m not just going back with the thought of giving them one year, I think I can help them out for a good couple of years yet.
“The older you get and the more experienced you get it’s all about the side. Coming off second bottom last season, there’s only one way to go. Obviously the main goal will to be to play finals and once you get to finals anything can happen.”
The Seddon resident said Yarraville, despite having a lean 2010/11 season, has the players to be more competitive next season, even without him.
“We blooded a lot of young players last season and there’s still some good quality experienced players there. I guess we all sort of put our hand up to say we didn’t have good individual seasons last year.”
Love said under 18 players Michael Culliver and Brad Shaw, who both had marginal returns with the bat in the first half of the season but had a much improved second half, will be ready to make a sizeable impact on Yarraville’s First XI next season.
