How Ringwood’s Matt Fotia has become a state cricketer

Promising underage performances, trips interstate and season-ending injuries; Matt Fotia has spoken about the experiences that led him to signing a contract with Victoria.

Victoria had to look no further than its own backyard for its next tearaway.

Ringwood’s Matt Fotia has capped off an imperious Premier Cricket summer, one that grossed 49 wickets at an average of just 14, by signing on with Victoria.

The right-arm speedster took a wicket in each and multiple in 14 of his 17 Premier Cricket matches in 2022-23, with season-best figures of 7-54 in a hostile spell of bowling against Prahran.

While his stack of scalps was by and large his best season to date, Fotia’s push to the next level has been in motion for some time.

The now 28-year-old holds the record for most wickets for Australia at underage level with 37, leading a list of bowlers that includes Test quicks Josh Hazlewood (21) and Jhye Richardson (17).

And although he showed promising signs during that 2013-14 period, Fotia felt he wasn’t ready to play state cricket.

“Sometimes wickets can be a misnomer, there were a lot of half-trackers to the deep boundary (in that 37),” Fotia said.

“I wouldn’t say something went wrong because I worked, I have done uni – I look at guys that got deals at that time, guys I would’ve been competing with, and they don’t play cricket anymore.

“Maybe I was a good bowler for that skill set but in terms of the next level at the time, there were other guys more suited.

“I can see why I didn’t get picked, and from then, you think it’s going to be linear, ‘oh I will just take a few wickets and I will get a deal’.

“I went to England, came back for the pre-season a bit out of shape and figured out pretty quickly that that’s not how it works.”

Fotia celebrates a wicket for Australia.

Despite returning to be a regular fixture in the Ringwood First XI, it took a chaotic pair of seasons to spark a resurgence in Fotia.

Coinciding with the two Covid affected seasons, he had a summer in Tasmania at Glenorchy before enduring a season-ending injury the following year.

With the pectoral injury restricting Fotia’s bowling, it resulted in him falling to the Third XI to steer Ringwood’s future prospects and develop his batting.

“Coming out of lockdown I was doing a lot of running and thought I better get some strength work into me,” he said.

“I had a struggle when doing a final set of push-ups and I thought that was normal, then I bowled that night and felt a bit sore, I just thought it was DOMS (Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness).

“I was able to bowl normal pace so I thought it was just the muscle sorting itself out but I woke up and my arm was blue.

“Playing threes was really enjoyable, playing as a batter, captaining and working with the younger blokes.

“I learned how to bat a bit, the first couple of games I was batting like a number 11 because I didn’t know how to bat any higher than 10.

“So, even though I didn’t make any runs, I had to learn how to bat with a bit more confidence.”

The early signs of Fotia’s pec injury.

With a season-best wicket tally of 32 prior to the season just gone, Fotia understands why people want to know what has caused the 17-dismissal improvement.

But he says it’s not one magical adjustment, instead a number of minor tweaks.

“It’s probably a bit of maturity in my body,” he said.

“This year I did a lot of work on my upper body to strengthen my pec, so it might be a bit of that.

“I am 28, turning 29, so my body is fitter, stronger and the wicket at Ringwood helps a little bit.

“Even though I am bowling fuller, I don’t have to bowl really full and I always try not to go for runs.

“I want to bowl a maiden every over and if I get hit for runs, that’s all I want to go for, I rarely try and get someone out, obviously in a close game I am trying to get a wicket but more often than not I am trying to bowl a dot.

“People ask me that, it doesn’t feel like I haven’t done much differently but if you ask coaches, they can say they can see something different.

“It’s hard when you’re bowling because everything feels so similar.”

Young Fotia letting it fly. Picture: Stuart Milligan

While opposition batters had difficulty escaping Fotia’s spells unscathed, even Ringwood – and now Victorian – teammate Tom Rogers says he finds him “disgusting to face”.

“I hadn’t seen Fot bowl a lot in the last few years because he had the Tassie trip and the pec injury,” he said.

“I remember watching him bowl in a Queensland game and he was bowling to Peter Forrest – who was still an unbelievable player at the time.

“Fot roughed him up with a few short balls, he (Forrest) played and missed five or six times and Fot ended up nicking him off.

“It was one of the best spells I have ever seen.

“He always seemed to have one or two balls where he would miss; he would float one too full or bowl a half-tracker and the good players would get him.

“Whereas I faced him in a centre wicket before the semi-final and I reckon I hit one ball for the night, he kept pitching it on leg stump and beating my outside edge.

“I turned to Gibbo (Ringwood wicketkeeper Ben Gibson) and said ‘I can’t hit the ball’, he just didn’t miss, that was when I realised this year; his pace is great, he seams the ball and is relentless.

“He doesn’t miss and it’s disgusting, as a left-hander, it’s disgusting to face.”

Fotia playing Second XI this summer.

As for what he wants to accomplish in Victorian threads, Fotia isn’t buying into expectations as that benchmark of success is something his earlier, more immature self would have done.

“I’m trying not to put an expectation on what I can achieve from here, when I do that I don’t stay in the moment,” he said.

“I just want to get in and learn as much as possible about my game and being professional and hopefully that will take me as far as I can go.”