Premier cricket season preview: Can Blacks win some silverware after changing of the guard?
IT’S a changing of the Adelaide University guard as new youth push through. Can they win some silverware after falling short of all three titles last season? See how the Blacks shape up against all the competition in our SACA Premier Cricket preview.
WHAT a difference a season makes.
Seven months after being bundled out of the SACA Premier Cricket semi-finals by Sturt after fielding an understrength team following the return to England of a host of key players, Adelaide University has had a change of philosophy and turned to youth to help turn finals into premierships.
Having last season built a “World XI’’ team with high-quality Englishmen, Irishmen and a host of players from interstate, the Blacks have recruited some of the local competition’s most promising teenagers in an attempt to lay the foundations for long term success and have their best players available at the business end of the season.
Last season Uni made the final of both limited overs competitions — the One-Day and Twenty20 Cups — and the semi-finals of the two-day competition but did not win a trophy.
In the semi-final of the main competition against Sturt, it was without key players Michael Burgess, Phil Salt and James McCollum, who had all returned home to prepare for their English County seasons.
While Uni is hopeful Burgess and McCollum will return to Adelaide to play “a handful’’ of matches for it this season, it has ensured there is quality and depth in its squad — and a sustainable future — by going on an unprecedented recruiting mission of signing talented kids from rivals.
They include Australian under-17 captain, batsman Kyle Brazell, and his Tea Tree Gully teammate, left-arm quick Zach Schwarz, and State under-17 all-rounder Cooper Luke from East Torrens.
Eddie Steele and Liam Greber have been signed from Kensington, Jack Bennetts from Sturt and Ethan Lee from Glenelg.
The biggest recruit of all is South African Test off-spinner and former Redbacks captain Johan Botha, who has been appointed Uni's coaching director.
Botha, who joins from the Seahorses, expects to play a handful of limited-overs matches for the club in among his Big Bash League commitments with Hobart Hurricanes.
The kids, which include talented teenagers Daniel Kerber, Bailey Wightman and Oscar Harms who already were at the club, will complement experienced captain Ben Wakim and talented Victorian all-rounder, vice-captain Sam Kerber.
Uni also has three Redbacks-contracted players — Jake Weatherald, Joe Mennie and Nick Winter.
“The guys had a really good season last year but we did suffer when our overseas players went home,’’ said Botha, who is part of a three-man coaching panel, along with former Blacks player Ben Hilliard and former State off-spinner Chris Harms.
“We are hoping some of them will still have some role to play with us this year but our major focus has been on bringing in some quality young talent from SA.
“We wanted to build a good core group that can grow together and be available for us at the business end of the season.
“It’s nice to have those UK players at our club because they do a lot of good work throughout the season but when they leave we need to have the resources available to step in to replace them.’’
Harms, who played 14 first-class matches for SA from 1982/83 to 1985/86, says Uni’s new vision is to provide young players with an education pathway as well as a cricket one.
Uni starts its 2018/19 campaign against Port Adelaide today in what will be the first of five consecutive one-day matches to start the season.
In other round one games, East Torrens plays Sturt, West Torrens meets Northern Districts, Adelaide hosts Woodville, Southern District plays Glenelg and Prospect is at home to Kensington. Tea Tree Gully has the bye.
HOW THE TEAMS SHAPE UP
ADELAIDE
Last season: Sixth.
Captain: Sam Raphael.
Redbacks: Michael Cormack, Ben Pengelley, Cameron Valente.
In: Matthew Frith (Victoria).
Out: Alex Reardon (season off), Alex Garlick (Port Adelaide), Daniel Payne (Goodwood).
KEY MAN: Ben Pengelley.
Coach says: “Frith is a big addition, having finished third in last season’s Jack Ryder Medal (Victorian Premier Cricket’s player of the season) and we expect him to have an impact with bat and ball. Young leg-spinner Jimmy Kain will get more opportunities. At full strength we’re pretty handy. We’ve had a big off-season focus on developing our culture even further and if we get that right I’m confident we’ll have a big year.’’ — Shaun Siegert.
ADELAIDE UNIVERSITY
Last season: Third.
Captain: Ben Wakim.
Redbacks: Joe Mennie, Jake Weatherald, Nick Winter.
In: Johan Botha, Ethan Lee (Glenelg), Kyle Brazell, Zach Schwarz (Tea Tree Gully), Cooper Luke (East Torrens), Eddie Steele, Liam Greber (Kensington), Jack Bennetts (Sturt).
Out: Phil Salt (England), Hamish Martin (Queensland), Chris Beatty (season off), Harry Bond (Port Adelaide).
KEY MAN: Ben Wakim.
Captain says: “We’ve brought in a lot of young players but there are some seriously good players there. While we are going through a youth push we’ve still got some experience in the side and hopefully these young kids can learn a bit from our older players. We had a great season last campaign without winning a trophy and we hope to be very competitive again.’’ — Ben Wakim.
EAST TORRENS
Last season: Seventh.
Captain: Jake Lehmann.
Redbacks: Jake Lehmann, Luke Robins, Adam Zampa.
In: Coby Cornish (NSW), Paul Carbone (Northern Territory).
Out: Mark Eichler (retired), Chris Rees (year off), Cooper Luke (Adelaide Uni).
KEY MAN: Luke Robins.
Coach says: “We were around the mark last season and we think we’re good enough to play finals this time around. We've got some young talent coming through, including Joel Size and Ryan King, mixed with some experience. Ben Dougall and Michael Cranmer are experienced batsmen and it’s important they have big seasons for us.’’ — Wayne Bradbrook.
GLENELG
Last season: Fourth.
Captain: Chadd Sayers.
Redbacks: Alex Carey, Chadd Sayers, Jake Winter.
In: Nil.
Out: Johan Botha (Adelaide Uni).
KEY MAN: Jake Winter.
Coach says: “We’ve got a stable squad and with an extra 12 months of experience with some of the younger boys we expect to challenge in all three formats again. Our batting is strong and Nick Fox and Daniel Clarke lead our bowling attack well. We have to start better than we did last season but we think we’ve got a nice balance with our batting and bowling.’’ — Grant Francis.
KENSINGTON
Last season: Eighth.
Captain: Jake Brown.
Redbacks: John Dalton, David Grant, Elliot Opie, Lloyd Pope, Alex Ross, Daniel Worrall.
In: Josh Doyle (Northern Territory), Paul Allegretto (returned).
Out: Scott Aufderheide (Queensland), Adam Hose (England), Charlie Holmes (Victoria), Eddie Steele, Liam Greber (Adelaide Uni).
KEY MAN: Jake Brown.
Coach says: “We missed the finals for the first time in seven years last season so we want to get back in there. We relied on Brown and Opie too much last season, so we’re looking for some of our young guys who have had a taste of first grade cricket in the past couple of seasons and showed some promise to contribute consistently and influence more games.’’ — Ben Johnswood.
NORTHERN DISTRICTS
Last season: 12th.
Captain: Mark Cosgrove.
Redbacks: Nil.
In: James Harris, Tim Rouse (England).
Out: Sam Agnew (injured), Kyle Giniotis (Port Adelaide).
KEY MAN: Mark Cosgrove.
Coach says: “We’ve recruited really well by getting the two Englishmen in Harris and Rouse. Harris, from Middlesex, has played 134 first-class games and is a terrific bowler who will bat seven for us. Rouse, from Somerset, also plays first-class cricket and is an opening batsman who will give us a big lift. With the additions, we are looking for an improved season and think we can push for the top four.’’ — Mark Cosgrove.
PORT ADELAIDE
Last season: Ninth.
Captain: Nick Benton.
Redbacks: Tom Cooper.
In: Ben Cooper (Holland), Adam Dilley (returned), Bailey Hann (West Torrens), Alex Garlick (Adelaide), Kyle Giniotis (Northern Districts), Jerses Wadia (India), Harry Bond (Adelaide Uni).
Out: Jack O’Hara (Trinity OC).
KEY MAN: Nick Benton.
Coach says: “It’s a really tight competition but we expect big things and should be there when the whips are cracking. We’ve added some players to improve our depth, which had been something we’d lacked and hurt us when we had guys injured or out of form. We think we’ve now got 22 guys who could play a role for us in first grade, which is exciting, while having Benton available all season will help as well,’’ — Matthew Weeks.
PROSPECT
Last season: 13th.
Captain: Ben Turley.
Redbacks: Nil.
In: Shaminda Eranga (Sri Lanka), Ben Turley (Woodville), Kyle Scrimegour (Northern Territory).
Out: Samjak Jain (Southern District).
KEY MAN: Sam Miller.
Coach says: “We’ve recruited really well so we are aiming for finals in all three formats and the expectation is that we win at least one of the competitions. Shaminda has played Test cricket for Sri Lanka and is quick, so he will be a terrific addition, while Turley and Scrymgour help us with both bat and ball. We’ve got a lot more experience and talent on our list than in recent seasons.’’ — Andrew Zesers.
SOUTHERN DISTRICT
Last season: 11th.
Captain: Josh Barrett.
Redbacks: Nil.
In: Samyak Jain (Prospect).
Out: Huw Stone (injured), Sean Williams (Mitchell Park).
KEY MAN: Josh Barrett.
Captain says: “We’ll be blooding a lot of youth, playing a lot of players that haven’t played a lot of first grade but have earned their stripes in the lower grades. We’ve got a handful of experienced players, with myself, Shaun Tanner and Brendan McCormack, who will be able to nurture the younger blokes and hopefully some of them stand up.’’ — Josh Barrett.
STURT
Last season: Second.
Captain: Brad Davis.
Redbacks: Nil.
In: Brinder Phagura (England).
Out: Alex Gregory, Tom O’Connell (Victoria).
KEY MAN: Brad Davis.
Coach says: “Losing the best 17-year-old leggie in Australia (O’Connell) and the best fast bowler outside of first-class cricket in SA (Gregory) means we have lost 80 wickets (between them) and it’s time to press the reset button. We have to be realistic with that. We expect our Englishmen (all-rounder Phagura and batsman Euan Woods) to be good for us and we'll continue to invest in the quality young players coming through our club. We’re hoping to win at least half of our games and be in a position to make the finals with a couple of rounds left.’’ — Ben Cameron.
TEA TREE GULLY
Last season: First.
Captain: Matthew Weaver.
Redbacks: Travis Head, Patrick Page.
In: Alfie Cooper (England).
Out: Joe Gatting (England), Kyle Brazell, Zach Schwarz (Adelaide Uni).
KEY MAN: Patrick Page.
Coach says: “Clearly we want to win it all again. We’ve been around the mark for a while but something we haven’t been able to do in two-day cricket is go back-to-back, so that would be nice. We’ve got most of our experienced players going around again, which leaves us in good shape, but we also want to blood some young fellas to see what our future holds.’’ — Matthew Weaver.
WEST TORRENS
Last season: 10th.
Captain: Kelvin Smith.
Redbacks: Callum Ferguson, Spencer Johnson, Kane Richardson, Kelvin Smith.
In: Warren Peters (Woodville), Martin Anderssen (England), Tom Kennewell (Flinders Park).
Out: Leigh Drennan (Queensland), Bailey Hann (Port Adelaide).
KEY MAN: Daniel Drew.
Coach says: “Last season was a bit of a rebuilding one for our club after losing key players to retirement following the three (two-day, one-day and T20) premierships. But I am confident we have picked up some handy recruits and with the continued development of some young talent we have coming through the SACA high performance program, along with the reliable Smith and Drew, we should be very competitive.’’ — Mark Harrity.
WOODVILLE
Last season: Fifth.
Captain: Harry Nielsen.
Redbacks: Tom Andrews, Conor McInerney, Harry Nielsen.
In: Stuart Coles (returned).
Out: Ben Turley (Prospect), Carl Tietjens (retired).
KEY MAN: Tom Andrews.
Coach says: “The key for us is winning most of our games when we’ve got our full strength side available. Our best XI is as good as anyone’s but we can’t waste the games where we’ve got Nielsen, McInerney and Andrews on the park together. With Turley gone, Luke Francesca — at the right stage of his career to blossom — will be a barometer for us with the ball and middle-to-late order with the bat.’’ — Sam McNally.