West Gippsland Cricket Association: Chris O’Hara appointed coach of Koo Wee Rup
Koo Wee Rup’s new coach knows a thing or seven about winning premierships and is looking forward to nurturing the next crop of Demons players.
South East
Don't miss out on the headlines from South East. Followed categories will be added to My News.
With seven premierships in the past 11 seasons, Koo Wee Rup is undoubtedly a giant of the West Gippsland Cricket Association.
And so, too, is the Demons’ champion batsman Chris “Tubsy’’ O’Hara, who has played in all seven flags.
“Yeah, been lucky,’’ O’Hara, who has scored over 5300 runs in the past decade, said.
“We probably won a few that we maybe shouldn’t have and maybe a couple got away that we should have won.
“It ebbs and flows, really. We’ve had a great era.’’
Koo Wee and O’Hara are headed for new challenges.
The 42-year-old has taken on the coaching role for the first time, replacing the great Mark Cooper, who has returned to the Mornington Peninsula association to coach Carrum.
O’Hara said he feels no pressure to continue the run of premierships and is more intent on pushing through the next generation of Koo Wee cricketers.
Success, he says, will look after itself.
“I have a whole club focus, whether it’s due to my days as president in the past but I really try to promote that inclusive nature,’’ O’Hara said.
“We are one club.
“We’ve got some great juniors and young cricketers around the club at the moment so I really want to try and promote that pathway for us.
“Because we’ve been through a pretty successful era we want to make sure that next crop coming through are given the opportunity to take that next step.’’
O’Hara is rapt premiership players Lachie Ramage (Pakenham Upper), Cody Miller (Dandenong) and John Bright (Foster) are returning.
And he says Riley Clark and Mitch Cammarano ready to step up and Nathan Voss and Luke McMaster are “just getting better and better’’.
“You’d hope that some of these young blokes can start to really take the opportunities and step up and push us old blokes out the door which would be good,’’ O’Hara said.
Mt Eliza seamer Robbie Maskiell has also joined Koo Wee Rup.
“He’ll be very handy,’’ O’Hara said.
While O’Hara takes the coaching reins, Chris “Wombat’’ Bright will captain the Demons’ First XI in 2020-21.
O’Hara was born in Koo Wee Rup and lived in the area as a youngster before his family moved north to dairy farm.
“I played a lot at Katunga in the Murray Valley Cricket Association,’’ he said.
MORE CRICKET NEWS
CLYDE RECRUITS HARD-HITTING BATSMAN