Ex-Test all-rounder Peter Sleep replaces Sam McNally as Woodville District Cricket Club coach
Former Test all-rounder Peter Sleep is excited about returning to grade cricket ranks to coach a different club but concedes facing his former team Tea Tree Gully will be tough.
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Former Test all-rounder Peter Sleep is excited about returning to grade cricket ranks as Woodville’s coach but concedes facing his former team Tea Tree Gully will be tough.
Sleep, who led the Gullies to seven premiership during coaching stints from 2006-11 and 2013-18, was this week announced as the Peckers’ new mentor, replacing Sam McNally.
McNally stepped down in January after five seasons at the helm.
“I’m quietly excited,” Sleep says.
“But Tea Tree Gully – that will be a difficult one.
“I’m a life member of Tea Tree Gully and the club means the world to me for what they’ve done for me.
“I had some great success with them so it will be a tough one when we face them, but after the game I’m sure we’ll have a beer or two.”
Sleep, who played 14 Tests as a leg-spinner and middle-order batsman, left Tea Tree Gully after the 2017/18 season to take up a role with Sri Lanka as spin coach.
But he departed the job earlier this year because of “a lot of politics” involving coaching and the selection board.
Sleep, 61, had heard McNally was stepping aside and put his hand up for the Woodville role, believing the Peckers had untapped talent and could make the two-day finals next season after missing out the past four campaigns.
“I’ve always been a fan of Woodville – I think they’ve got some really talented players and have perhaps underachieved a bit in recent years,” he says.
“They’ve got a talented group – guys like (Conor) McInerney, (Tom) Andrews, (Harry) Nielsen are state players.
“You put them with a talented squad and you should do well.
“It’s just a matter of getting them to produce their talents all the time.”
Sleep’s first priority will be to add two pace bowlers to the side.
But he acknowledges it is difficult to make the top four in a 13-team competition.
“This year they went pretty well with not having many bowlers and they won the last game of the year (against Prospect), which was a good effort,” he says.
“You’ve got to have a little bit of luck as well to make finals in this competition, there’s no doubt about that.
“We need to add a couple of bowlers and I’m already looking around.”
Woodville finished eighth in the two-day competition this season with a 5-6-1 record and missed the finals in both the limited-overs formats.
patrick.keam@news.com.au
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