Key inclusions for Tonners, including ex-Premier wicketkeeper-batsman
Brighton has recruited one key player and regained two more as it sets about bouncing back from a disappointing finish to the 2019-20 Subbies season.
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In Ricky Damiano, Brighton has the best wicketkeeper-batsman in the VSDCA.
In Rob Salerni it now has a second ex-Premier Cricket gloveman and top-order player.
The former Frankston-Peninsula First XI man is a prize recruit for the Tonners and will probably take over wicketkeeping duties from Damiano, who stood behind the sticks in all but one match last season.
Salerni, a Victorian under-age representative, played no cricket in 2019-20.
But in the previous season he was Frankston Peninsula’s first-choice wickie and punched out 392 runs at 24.5, with half-centuries against Dandenong, Monash Tigers and Northcote. He also had 26 dismissals.
“We’ll see what Rob wants to do. I’m happy not to keep if he wants to,’’ Damiano said. “It’s up to him.’’
Salerni was in the lower grades when Damiano was at Frankston Peninsula.
He rose to play 69 matches in the First XI, his attacking batting complementing his glovework.
“He’s a quality player. I expect him to do well in Subbies … he’s motivated, passionate, I think he’s pretty good,’’ Damiano said.
He said Salerni had thought about returning to Frankston Peninsula.
“I asked him if he was 100 per cent committed to Premier and he said probably not,’’ he said.
“So I said to him, ‘Don’t waste your time, if you’re not fully committed, you’re better off playing at a lower level’. I said we’d love to have him and a few days later he said he was coming to Brighton. All happened pretty quickly.’’
He said Salerni would bat at No 4 or 5.
The Tonners are chasing another batsman from a Premier club.
But they have had other gains, with former Brighton Grammar player Declan Adams returning to cricket and Sam Hall-Kahan and Noah Severin back at the club.
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Paceman Hall-Kahan had knee problems and took last season off.
In 2017-18 he grabbed 26 wickets at 13.7, including a bag of 7-40 against Elsternwick.
Adams is a left-armer bowler similar to top Tonner Luke Shimmin.
“He was a quality cricketer at school level and made junior rep stuff … and now he wants to get back into it,’’ Damiano said.
Severin, a Brighton junior, had a stint at Premier club St Kilda and should fill a middle-order slot.
“He’s highly talented … he’ll be a good player for us,’’ Damiano said, adding that the Tonners were “flying under the radar’’.
Brighton missed the finals last season after losing its last three matches.
It was disappointing for Damiano, who hit four centuries and a home and away-best 716 runs at 59.7. He also assumed the Brighton record for most runs in a season, going past Gordon Robinson’s 706, made in 1918-19.