‘Serious player’: Nathan Freitag helps Vics take Australian country cricket title
A back injury got in the way of Nathan Freitag’s run at first-class cricket but his performances at club and representative level mark him out as a great of the Victorian country game, writes PAUL AMY.
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Having been staged in South Australia’s wine-rich region of the Barossa Valley, the Australian country cricket championships gave the winning team ample opportunity to drink to its success.
But for Nathan Freitag and most of his Victorian teammates, the celebrations were more steady than hearty.
They attended the carnival dinner last Friday night to receive their spoils and a few hours later most of them were up early to catch a flight to Tullamarine and drive back to their districts to play for their clubs.
Freitag returned to his home town of Traralgon to turn out for Glengarry in the Cricket Latrobe Valley competition.
He wasn’t needed against Toongabbie, which pleased him. It was a break for his 35-year-old body after playing nine matches for the Vics, who won seven games to be four points clear on top. They finished with the flourish of routing WA for 65.
The championship was Freitag’s third with Victoria Country and another accolade in a long and success-studded career highlighted by state second XI cricket for Victoria and Tasmania, and double-centuries in both states.
His first carnival with the Vics, in 2009-10, was the spur for him to try his luck in Premier Cricket with Casey South Melbourne.
He made his reputation with the Swans as a left-hand batsman who scored freely all around with the wicket and a left-arm fast bowler with the ability to make the ball swing sharply into the right-hander.
Sensing an opening to play first-class cricket, Freitag headed for Tasmania, joining Kingborough.
Without a state contract and with much to prove, he bowled a lot of overs, in the end too many. His back eventually gave way and he was forced to stop bowling. His supporters think the injury cost him his chance at big cricket.
“Nathan Freitag would have played for Tassie if he didn’t do his back,’’ declares former Tasmanian paceman and fellow Gippslander Mark Ridgway.
“In either the Shield or one-dayers, he would have been the all-rounder. Mate, he was a star. He was a serious player.’’
Freitag responds: “Yeah, maybe I could have gone higher. I think my bowling was going to get me in. Being a left-armer, I was a bit different. I wasn’t the quickest, but I wasn’t the slowest either, and I had a few tricks. At the same time I could bat. Anyway, it wasn’t to be.’’
Ridgway was coaching Casey South Melbourne when Freitag made the move from country to Premier Cricket in 2010-11.
He quickly assessed him as a ready-made First XI player.
A knee injury when he was playing football for Traralgon wrecked Freitag’s second season.
He came back strongly: in 2012-13, Victoria chose him in a Second XI match against NSW in which he came up against Sean Abbott, Kurtis Patterson and Daniel Hughes.
Ridgway greeted Freitag’s selection with a prediction that he could be playing for Victoria within 18 months.
“He bowls left-arm at a reasonable pace, he bats in the top six, he’s an outstanding fielder and he’s a hard bastard,’’ he told the local press.
The following season Freitag took 31 wickets and hit a Premier century, 138 against Northcote. But he remained out of the state squad.
“I think the stories of the Vics being a bit of a boys’ club may be true, may be not … I was probably given a go because I had some good performances, but I think the Second XI was the only spot they had for me,’’ Freitag says.
Former Sheffield Shield fast bowler Damien Wright, who had also been at Casey South Melbourne, encouraged him to go to Tasmania, and the persistent calls of Kingborough coach Tim Scott convinced him to make the move alongside another ex-Swan, Clive Rose. A young Beau Webster was a teammate.
Hobart Mercury headlines came to Freitag with an early star-turn of 5-34 and 100 against New Town.
The state selectors noticed the newcomer, picking him for Second XI matches against South Australia and Victoria.
But, with a lot of overs under his belt, Freitag broke down with a back injury late in the season.
“I had a few attempts at rehab, but in the end I had to give it (bowling) away,’’ he says.
“When you go to Tassie and you’re not on a contract, you don’t have the resources around you and get told when and not to bowl.
“So I just kept doing it.’’
It caught up with him in the form of a split disc.
But as his bowling went into recess, his batting took off, lifting him back into the Tasmanian Second XI and even a Hobart Hurricanes development squad to tour New Zealand in 2017.
He hit six centuries for Kingborough, including a hand of 219 not out against Glenorchy in 2017-18.
“The best I’ve ever batted … don’t think I’ll get close to that again,’’ he says. “I actually struggled a lot to tea. I was on 85, maybe. But after tea I started hitting them out of the middle and everything went for four or six. I went from 85 to 219 in a session. No one was getting me out that day. I wasn’t bowling by then, so my whole focus was on batting.’’
Freitag intended to stay in Tasmania for one, see-how-it-goes season but dropped anchor for five.
“Me and my partner (Michaila) really liked the lifestyle over there,’’ he says. “Plenty of cafes and bars and it wasn’t as high-paced as a regular city. Being from the country, the big smoke isn’t really for me.’’
At the end of 2017-18 season, Freitag headed back to Victoria and to Centrals Cricket Club.
Back in the Traralgon association he cracked another double century, a club-record 227 not out, in a semi-final against Jeeralang-Booloora.
Keen to return to Premier Cricket, he again linked with the Swans as a top-order batsman. Again he did well, hitting seven half-centuries. But he couldn’t see himself advancing any higher and the pull of home was strong. There was also work to be done, as a landscaper and a father.
Freitag also made the difficult decision to change local clubs, leaving Centrals and joining Glengarry as captain-coach.
“They’d had a pretty strong list without a massive amount of success,’’ he says of ‘Garry.
Under his charge the club has reached four grand finals and won two premierships.
Of course, his many runs have helped. Freitag is also bowling again, not with the speed or stamina he had early in his career, but with enough zip to keep opponents wary. Some people rate him the best paceman in Gippsland. This season he had 16 wickets before Christmas, 20 when a Sunday representative game was counted.
“I feel all right. The back’s good. It’s just everything else getting sore. It’s the hamstrings and quads going now,’’ he says.
Last season Glengarry lost the grand final, but Freitag had a crumb of consolation by captaining Cricket Latrobe Valley’s win in the Gippsland Cricket League (GCL). He’s always made himself available for rep games, taking the chance to test himself against the Gippy region’s leading cricketers.
Lee Stockdale also played in Cricket Latrobe Valley’s GCL title last season and at the national country championships this month (being named the Vics’ leading performer at the carnival).
Freitag, he says, remains an outstanding player.
“He’s as highly respected as anyone up here,’’ he says. “With his performances, he’s always in the top couple every year, and he’s one of those guys who still plays at the best level he can. That’s what makes him so good – he’s always trying to play at his best.’’
CRICKET LATROBE VALLEY PRESIDENT BRAD HOWLETT ON NATHAN FREITAG
“I reckon I was Nat’s first A grade captain at Centrals in the old TDCA (Traralgon District association). He was 13 or 14. We were struggling at the time. He made a couple of 20s as a kid batting at No 3, 4, 5 and you could see how talented he was. We watched him go through and if he didn’t do his back surely he would have played state cricket. He’s so well thought of in our competition, from teammates, umpires, opposition. He’s had an extraordinary career for a country cricketer. Just an all-round good bloke too.’’
NATHAN FREITAG’S LEADING CRICKETERS
Best in Gippsland: Adrian Burgiel, Lee Stockdale, Andrew Perrin, Rohan Blandford, Travis Switzer, Grantley Switzer, Ian Wrigglesworth, James Pryde, Kent Hammond, Reagan Kyle, Jack Rietschel, Rhys Holdsworth
Best at Casey South Melbourne: Clive Rose, Jayde Herrick, Damien Wright
Best at Kingborough: Clive Rose, Jackson Bird, Beau Webster, Adam Maher, Brady Jones, Nathan Reardon, Jake Reed
Best played against: Marcus Stoinis, Matt Short, Ed Cowan, George Bailey, Alex Doolan, Ben Dunk, Ben Hilfenhaus, James Faulkner, Ben McDermott, Andrew Fekete
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