Premier Cricket: Kingston Hawthorn out to ‘earn respect’ in 2021-22

Coach Peter Marshall says the Hawks must lift their standards in the season that starts on November 13.

Kingston Hawthorn coach Peter Marshall and assistant Al Manning at Walter Galt Reserve on Saturday.

You won’t hear coach Peter Marshall making any grand predictions about Kingston Hawthorn ahead of the 2021-22 Victorian Premier Cricket season.

What you will hear are words like “improvement’’, “competitive’’ and “respect’’.

All players are working hard to improve.

The Hawks want all their four teams to be competitive.

And they’re out to win some respect across the Premier competition.

The quest began last Saturday at the Walter Galt Reserve with the club’s first official pre-season training session.

It will be a short and sharp lead-up to Round 1 on November 13.

“Great to see 50 young, smiling faces here out of lockdown and ready to get stuck into it,’’ Marshall said as his fitness man Jason McNiece put the players through some running exercises.

Kingston Hawthorn players hit the training track last Saturday morning.

Across all grades Kingston Hawthorn won 18 matches last season and Marshall said the club wanted to exceed that in 2021-22.

“For us it’s about winning some games of cricket and earning some respect,’’ he said.

“I know we’re in a rebuild and a redevelopment stage. We’ve had 15 or 16 players leave, we’ve had 15 or 16 players join us.

“The pleasing part is we’ve created a pathway for local players through a relationship with the SECA (South East Cricket Association) and we had a strong Dowling Shield team last year and a number of the Dowling boys and APS boys have joined the club. Our improvement will come from them and from within. We’ve got (Romain) Grenville, (Thaveesh) Attanayake and (Sacheen) Paramesh back from injury and it stiffens up our First XI.’’

The firsts won two games, one of them over St Kilda at the Junction Oval in a boilover of scalding proportions.

Paceman Harry Singh took four wickets and was one of the architects of the upset – and one of the finds of last season – but he crossed to Greenvale Kangaroos.

Sam Newell, who blitzed 99 off 82 balls in the final round against Melbourne University, also moved on, joining Dandenong.

The bulk of the Hawks’ recruits are young and will start in the lower grades, including Tyler Pearson, who with Corey Cater and Dowling captain Trae Love-Linay was named in the Cricket Victoria Under 17 male emerging players program.

The Hawks also have Sen Sathyajith in the Under 19 program, encouraging for a club that in recent years has not often featured in talent pathways squads.

Class batsman Shorye Chopra will captain the Hawks.

Spinner Qamar Awan, a Pakistan Under 19 representative, has joined Kingston Hawthorn from Cricket Southern Bayside club Cheltenham, where he took 21 wickets at 12.62 last season.

“We’re excited to see what he can bring to the table; he might be a smoky,’’ Marshall said.

The Hawks chased some senior experience but missed out.

“Yeah, we’re young, and I would have liked to grab one or two seasoned players,’’ the coach said.

“It wasn’t for want of trying. A couple of the boys chose to stay at their clubs because they felt they were in a premiership window. I respect that. But we’ll go hard again and hopefully we’ll get the right person for the right reason.’’

Glen Parker is one arrival with a few seasons on the clock. The former Camberwell Magpie has joined the Hawks as batting coach.

Batsman Shorye Chopra will captain the First XI, leading a team Marshall thinks is capable of rising a few rungs up the ladder.

“With the group we’ve got and the plans we have, we think we can win more than two games in the firsts, and that will go all through the grades, just with some stability, understanding our group and knowing a bit more about the opposition,’’ he said.

“We’re going to lift our standards. We need to be more competitive. I understand Cricket Victoria want us Kingston Hawthorn to be more competitive. We want to be more competitive. We believe we’re on the right track. We’ll have a crack.’’

The Hawks host Northcote in Round 1 and visit St Kilda in Round 2.