Coburg set to unearth ‘exciting’ young talent

With a few outs this week, Coburg are set to unearth some “exciting” young talent into its senior side.

Coburg are set to unearth some of their in form youngster for their important round two clash against Malvern this week as several First XI players are unavailable.

Club coach and captain Aaron Shellie confirmed Fletcher Stewart, Daniel Patrick, Shane Lee and Stephen Mihelakos-James would be unavailable this weekend.

“We got four of the older boys out from the ones this week for various reasons so there will be some good opportunities for the young kids,” Shellie said.

“There is definitely a little group of younger guys who are really pushing for first XI if they perform.

“A couple of them did really well on the weekend in the twos so they will most likely earn their chance.

“And we tell everyone, there are spots there to be had.

“We are pretty underperforming throughout most of our eleven in the firsts.

“Bar a few people, we are pretty flexible so every spot is up for grabs at the end of the day and whoever puts their best foot forward is going to have it.”

Coburg captain-coach Aaron Shellie in action. Photo: Hamish Blair

Shellie said no selections were confirmed yet but hinted at the possibility of bringing in a few debutants.

“We will have a new look side this week which is probably not a bad thing,” he said.

“It’s probably a good opportunity for these young guys to see if they are ready for this level.”

“You keep bloodying these kids and hopefully they can stick around and we can have some prolonged success.

“I think that’s what the club needs and that is what we’re after hence why we are not trying to go away and get too many top end players or look elsewhere.

“We are trying to blood our guys inside like we have been the last couple of years.

“It’s an exciting time.”

Shellie said experienced cricketer Javed Bolim was also in the mix of a return to the firsts after scoring a half century in Second XI last week.

Coburg finished in third position last season and were pleased to get a taste of finals for the first time in five years.

Shellie said his side would be striving to make finals again but long term success was also the big focus with the young group of players at the club.

“If it’s this year then great but if it’s not, we think we got a pretty bright future in the next five, six, seven years if we can keep this young talent together and keep learning and developing as a group,” he said.

Aaron Ayre scored his maiden century for Coburg on the weekend. Photo: Hamish Blair

Coburg began their season strongly last week, defeating Preston by 106 runs.

Shellie said “the win was a bonus” as “it was good to get on for the first time” after “a long pre-season.”

He also praised Aaron Ayre who contributed superbly with his maiden Sub-District century.

“Anyone in the side that has played premier cricket and comes back takes that additional pressure with them,” he said.

“You have played higher grade cricket, you would like to think that you can be an enforcer in the game and really be a big vocal point.

“So I know Nugget (Aaron Ayre) has played for Victoria, he is an absolute superstar.

“It is probably a bit mean on some of the bowlers when he is out there and flying, he is pretty impossible to bowl to.

“I know he was one of the best premier batsman going around so it’s a bit unfortunate for the blokes that bowl to him sometimes but it’s good for us.

Ayre scored 108 from 70 deliveries opening the batting on the weekend to help his side reach a total of 261.

The former Essendon premier cricketer had 78 of his runs comes from the 18 boundaries he smashed which included three big sixes.

“It was phenomenal, Shellie said.

“He hits the ball 360, he can manipulate the field and then get blokes where he wants them so he can hit the ball elsewhere.

“He is really calculated with the way he bats and there is a real small margin of error when you bowl to someone like him which is really hard for a lot of the guys.

“He is phenomenal and we are lucky to have him.”

Ayre scored the second most runs behind Shellie in the north-south Sub-District competition last season.

The former Victoria state cricketer hit 625 runs from 15 innings which included six half centuries while Shellie notched 642 runs including three hundreds and three fifties.

Shellie who also began his season well on the weekend with a handy 69 from 58 balls understood the load he had to carry with his opening partner Ayres as the more experienced players in the side.

“We definitely take a heavy load and we don’t want to fail,” he said.

“If we fail, we feel that we let everybody down so we take a lot of responsibility on our shoulders for sure.”

Coburg will take on Malvern this week who also made it to the qualifying final last season but in the east-west Subbies competition.