Nick Speak thought he owed Dandenong but last season’s premiership put him credit
NJ Speak like an acronym, but not as much as he enjoyed coaching Dandenong to last season’s premiership.
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It’s Nick Speak’s stock response whenever he’s asked about his appointment as senior coach of Dandenong two years ago.
“I felt I owed them something,’’ he always says.
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It is a reference to his two seasons at the club as a professional player, when he made less runs expected of a batsman who made many of them in English County cricket.
There was another side to his acceptance of the coaching role. He had thoroughly enjoyed his time at Dandenong, a club and a district that reminded him of his working-class upbringing in Manchester.
Runs might have eluded him but feelings of fraternity were in abundance. In short, he loved the place, and he didn’t have to linger over a decision when Panthers great Brendan McArdle called him a few months before the 2016-17 season to say Dandy wanted him to coach.
Speak had spent the previous eight years as a senior assistant at Melbourne.
“It just seemed like an opportunity too good to pass up,’’ he said of McArdle’s invitation. “I thought it could work out reasonably well.’’
It worked out even better.
“I felt I owed the club something,’’ Speak said again after last season’s grand final against Fitzroy-Doncaster at St Kilda.
Apart from the “well dones’’, it was all he said for almost two hours; he gave the rooms over to his players, borrowing an All Blacks after-game ritual. He admits to “cross-sport plagiarism’’, believing cricket “has occupied its own bubble for too long”.
“The Whare’ is embedded in Maori culture,’’ Speak said. “It means ‘meeting house’, a place for all tribesmen to have their say, good or bad, air their washing. It was a magical two hours; players, administrators, family and supporters all joined in.’’
The Panthers had swept to a 10-wicket victory, led by internationals Peter Siddle and Darren Pattinson.
Siddle hadn’t played for Dandy for two seasons but was available for the grand final. He gave a man-of-the-match performance (he also gave the $500 voucher he won for the award to seamer Peter Cassidy, recognising his important spell late on the second day).
Pattinson hadn’t played for the Panthers for three seasons; he had retired to become a greyhound trainer. But he returned at age 38 to bowl Dandenong into the final by grabbing 6-13 against Carlton in the preliminary final. Four second-innings Lions wickets in the final followed.
“He’ll be the best recruit of the year,’’ Victorian coach Andrew McDonald had remarked when told Pattinson was coming back to Premier Cricket. They were prescient words.
Dandy had made a sharp rise, finishing third in the club championship as all four teams qualified for the finals.
Rise is the appropriate word, for at Dandenong it stands for “Resilience, Integrity, Selfless, Enjoyment’’.
Speak likes an acronym. His son Kenny is a four-year lacrosse scholarship player at Endicott College in Boston.
“Messaging and knowing acronyms has helped communicate with him,’’ he said. “He probably has three or four other conversations on the go. You have to be quick getting back. Who talks to their kids on the phone any more?”
“LWT’’ is short for “lead without title’’, something he expects of his senior and junior players.
“We’ve created leaders without titles; well, they have, which is the key to unlocking the door to success,’’ he said. “A driver in that has been connecting the senior players with those coming in, trying to level out the hierarchal field.’’
And “LLL’’ means “Look, Listen, Learn’’, advice given to him by the great Clive Lloyd at Lancashire.
It came after his first-team debut for Lancs against a Jamaican attack led by Michael Holding and Courtney Walsh at Sabina Park, Kingston. Speak scored 4 and 0. “Don’t worry, it will get better,’’ Lloyd told him.
Counting the likes of Mike Atherton, Wasim Akram, Graeme Fowler, Phil DeFreitas and Neil Fairbrother as teammates, he went on to play 177 first-class and 159 List A matches, the bulk of them for Lancs. There were 15 centuries.
And there was also a one-day ton, against Yorkshire at Headingley in 1992, in a match when Sachin Tendulkar hit a century for Yorks. Type in “Tendulkar/Speak’’ on Youtube and you’ll find great footage of the Sunday League affair.
His County career ended in disappointment after he crossed to Durham as captain; for a time he became disillusioned with the game.
“Eighteen years of playing and travelling professionally took its toll,’’ Speak said.
“It did end prematurely at Durham. In many ways that may have been a blessing though.’’
Speak had married a South Gippsland girl and the family returned there. His passion for cricket was rekindled at a club called OMK, Outtrim Moyarra Kongwak.
“How can you not like the cricket when players leave the game early to go and milk their cows?’’ he said.
Former Dandenong player Blair Hunter was a teammate. Quite a few years on Speak finds himself coaching the late Hunter’s nephew Jakeb Thomas.
Last season he also was brought in to help coach the Victorian Futures League team, indicating that Cricket Victoria higher-ups have a good regard for his coaching ability.
Speak has the desire to go to another level. But it’s a waiting game.
“It’s not like you’re a CEO or MD with businesses and companies all over the world looking for leaders,’’ he said. “There aren’t many first-class cricket organisations so the opportunities are few. You have to be patient.’’
For now he’s content to enter a third season with the Panthers. They’re starting pre-season training later than other clubs.
“Guys are hitting balls and doing stuff but we’ve given them July to reflect and think about what we achieved, what we have, and what we don’t want to lose,’’ Speak said. “It’s not arrogance on our part. It’s about autonomy, which we encourage. It will be time well spent.’’
Dandenong will be strengthened by the return from Berwick of James Wilcock, who will join a pace attack of the Pattinson, Jak Jowett, Cassidy, all-rounder James Nanopoulos and emerging pair Thomas and Paddy Turner.
The batting will again lean on prolific opening pair Tom Donnell and Brett Forsyth, followed in the order by new Victorian rookie Ed Newman, LJ Edwards, Nanopoulos and Cam Forsyth.
Comrey Edgeworth, Josh Slater and Ryan Quirk, all of whom were prolific in the Second XI last season, are ready to step up.
But the Panthers have lost two young players they would rather have kept: fast bowler Matt Wetering and wicketkeeper Koby Brann.
When Round 1 comes around, Speak will be in credit. He’s more than paid back what he felt he owed Dandenong.
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