Aberfeldie to unleash a three-pronged pace attack on VTCA Senior Division
VTCA Senior Division rivals look out, Aberfeldie will unleash a three-pronged pace attack after securing a Premier and Subbies paceman.
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Aberfeldie will unleash a dangerous three-pronged attack on VTCA Senior Division next season.
The grand finalists have secured former Premier Cricket and Subbies paceman Jack Sheppard from Coburg, in a huge recruiting coup.
Sheppard has been one of suburban cricket’s best fast bowlers for close to a decade in stints with Geelong, Footscray and the Lions.
He’ll join Abers captain Tallan Wright and fellow former Premier quick Zach Mevissen in what looms as a dominant new-ball attack.
Wright was thrilled to add another former Bulldogs teammate after securing Anthony Barton earlier this month.
“Surprise, surprise, another one from Footscray I played with.
“We had a chat to him before my first year at Aberfeldie but he’d locked into a contract at Coburg.
“He was the first name I thought of but getting him out of Coburg was going to be tough, he’s a two-time bowling award winner and runner-up in the club champion twice.
“He knows a few of the guys, Barto and Tommy Godsell, that he’s played with before and it’s a bit closer to home.
“It took a little bit of swaying but being in what we see as a premiership window we identified what we needed and we’re lucky enough to get him.”
Sheppard spent the last three seasons with Coburg in the VSDCA.
He claimed 59 wickets in 39 First XI matches, including 16 scalps in 15 appearances this season at an average of 18.88, helping the Lions break a five-year finals drought.
The veteran quick previously played 79 Premier Cricket First XI matches with Geelong and Footscray.
He picked up 28 wickets in 22 appearances with the Cats, winning the club bowling award in 2014-15, before moving to the Dogs and taking 58 wickets in 57 matches.
With the return to two-day cricket expected in 2022-23, Wright said his new recruit would be perfectly suited.
“He’s an unbelievably good red-ball bowler, in Premier Ones he goes at twos, so he’s a really economical bowler,” he said.
“Whether he’s taking (wickets) or it opens up the other end for us, it goes a long way to keeping (opposition) to not many.”
Sheppard joins an attack that took the second most wickets (96) and conceded the fourth fewest runs (1896) in Senior Division this season.
Craig Sheedy was the club’s leading wicket-taker with 20 scalps, earning himself Team of the Year honours along with batsman Jordan Kight.
Sheedy was the only Abers bowler in the competition’s top-10, while Mevissen claimed 17 wickets and spinner Sohan Boralessa finished with 13.
Wright said his attack’s depth would be hard to beat.
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“If the ball doesn’t swing I’m pretty useless,” Wright joked.
“We’ve got a lot of new ball options which is good, Shepp, myself and Mevo, are the first three options and then Josh Docking, Tom Godsell and Anthony Barton.
“We can just keep it tight and then let Sheeds and Sohan clean up.
“Whether Shepp takes 40 wickets or three, he’s still going to be economic and in 80-over cricket it’s just as important.”
ABERFELDIE ADDS FOOTSCRAY PREMIERSHIP GUN
VTCA Senior Division grand finalist Aberfeldie has wasted no time securing top order talent for next season.
Abers has signed Footscray Premier Cricket premiership-winning opening batsman Anthony Barton as it looks to go one better in 2022-23.
The top-order batsman played 81 First XI matches for Melbourne University, Footscray and Greenvale, helping the Bulldogs break their Premier Cricket flag drought in 2013-14.
He would go on to join Greenvale’s VTCA team and win the Senior Division Paxino Medal in his first season in 2016-17.
Barton stepped away from cricket in 2020 but will return to play alongside his former Bulldogs and Kangaroos teammate and Abers captain Tallan Wright, who was rapt to get him on board.
“We identified a need for an opening bat and I’ve played a fair bit of cricket with Barto,” Wright said.
“We’re quite good mates so he was the first bloke I thought of, I tried to lure him out of retirement last season, and we’ve managed to grab him.
“It was a lot of hard work (laughs), a lot of text messages and calls, and this time round he’s got the itch and he’s ticked it off with his wife.
“He’ll be a really nice addition to the top of our order.”
Barton will help fill the void left by departing batsman Shaifi Moazzem.
Wright was confident he would excel, especially in two-day cricket.
“He’ll take some time to find his feet after a couple of seasons off but he’ll knuckle down in the pre-season,” Wright said.
“When he does I think he’s going to be a very good addition, he can bat long and hits the ball hard, so the longer he spends out there the more attacks he’ll punish.”
Wright hopes Barton isn’t the only off-season addition.
“We’ve got a couple of things going on in the background,” he said.
“We felt we were a bowler short most of the year and that came to be proven in the grand final.
“We’re chatting to a few at the moment so we’ll hopefully be able to sign on of those and we’ll shut up shop from there.
“We’re pretty happy with how we went, despite falling over at the final hurdle, but a couple of good additions will cap us off and we’ll go again.”
Aberfeldie fell agonising short of what would have been a miracle premiership this season.
After finishing last in 2020-21 the club was saved from relegation by Strathmore’s defection to the VSDCA before going on a memorable run to the minor premiership.
However, despite winning the first game of the grand final series, Abers went down to Haig Fawkner in Game 2 and 3 to finish runner-up.
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After such a remarkable turnaround, Wright couldn’t be anything but proud of his club.
“We were beaten by a better side over the course of a series and you can put your head on the pillow at night and accept that,” Wright said.
“It was well documented we weren’t meant to be in the comp … so that’s what we spoke about after the game, I just told the group how proud I was of the improvement over the course of 12 months.
“We’ll look to go again, the points cap has dropped again so a couple of sides might struggle to sign big recruits but we’re lucky enough to have grabbed one and we can squeeze another one in.”
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