Werribee Cricket Club captain Shaun Dean, coaches Jeff Dean, Ivo Havard and David Dodemaide and new recruit Tim O’Brien. 84632_01 Picture: CONTRIBUTED
By LIAM TWOMEY
THE Werribee Cricket Club is launching into a new era.
After an off-season of change, the Tigers have appointed new captain Shaun Dean who will replace the departing Travis Bean.
Dean is coming off an outstanding season in the Victorian Sub District Cricket Association where he scored over 500 runs and was selected in the competition’s team of the year.
In a move to further instil fear into bowling attacks throughout the VSDCA, Werribee has also added all-rounder and new vice-captain Tim O’Brien to its line-up.
O’Brien will take up residence in the top order and add some variety to the bowling attack with his leg spin.
Together the pair has Premier Cricket experience with Footscray Edgewater and O’Brien also played a season for Melbourne University.
The changes don’t stop there with Jeff Dean, Ivo Havard and David Dodemaide making up Werribee’s coaching panel.
Havard said the club was confident the new leadership structure would lead to a good season on the field.
“Shaun is a good young bloke and all the other players around him responded well to him. He has had plenty of experience coming through as a leader with junior teams,” he said.
“He will have some really good support with Tim O’Brien as a new recruit. He is a leg spinner and top order batsman and a really good top class fieldsman. He will support him as vice-captain in the leadership area.
“We expect with those two at the top that they will do a really good job.
“They are only young guys but they have played a mountain of cricket and they know the game backwards. We are going to back them in to do a good job for a number of years. We have put a coaching structure in place that has got a lot of experience.”
As well as supporting the first XI, the new structure is also designed to continue to develop the club’s vast array of exciting young players.
“We have got a heap of young guys coming through and we want to develop them into the cricketers they can be,” Havard said.
“With Sean and Tim we think we can develop a pretty good cricket team around them or cricket club around those guys as leaders.”
