Craigieburn shake up in search of VTCA Isaacs Shield improvement

Craigieburn hopes a coaching set-up shake up and a new captain can give the club the change it needs to rise up the VTCA Isaacs Shield ladder this season after surviving relegation in 2018-19.

Sam Laffan in action for Craigieburn. Picture: Hamish Blair

Craigieburn has shaken things up this VTCA off-season.

The club survived relegation last season by the barest of margins and hopes a fresh start can propel it to a maiden Isaacs Shield finals campaign.

The arrival of experienced all-rounder Shupinder Taggar from DVCA club Bundoora is a huge boost.

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Taggar scored 261 runs at an average of 23.7 in 11 games and took 16 wickets at 14.3.

Craigieburn coach Chris Laffan was impressed with his pre-season and believes he’ll be a strong presence in the field.

“We’ve loved his enthusiasm and his keenness to fit in with the group we have,” Laffan said.

Shupinder Taggar in action for Bundoora.

“Certainly with the bat, we’re hopeful he can add some middle order experience to steer the ship alongside Sammy (Laffan).

“Also out in the field and with the ball, it gives us another eight overs in the one-day games to support Josh (Eaton) and Mick (Bury) and support our young bowlers.”

After a stellar 2018-19 season, which saw him named in the VTCA Division 1 North Team of the Year, Sam Laffan will hand over the captaincy to Michael Berry.

Josh Eaton, Matt Bisht and Brodie Warren have taken on skill-specific assistant coaching roles.

Chris Laffan was confident his team would put in a better showing in its third season in the competition’s second tier.

“We understand we’re certainly a young side in terms of senior experience but feel we’re on the other end in terms of quality players we’ve got at the club,” he said.

Sam Laffan in action for Craigieburn. Picture: Hamish Blair

Brodie Warren in action for Craigieburn. Picture: Mark Wilson

“We’ve had a few changes in terms of our coaching ranks and gone for a bit more flexibility … to keep things as fresh as possible.

“We just want to be as competitive as possible, we played every game last year with the expectation to win.

“There’s no clubs out there that give us that fear factor, we think we can beat anyone on our day.

“I don’t think we bowled over 60 overs last year, we skittled some teams for low totals.

“At times our batting was able to make some big scores but it was just putting that consistency together. In some of those one-dayers we struggled to control the innings.”