Footscray optimistic is can bounce back after injury-riddled Premier Cricket season
A series of injuries and down years for a couple of stars saw Footscray slide down the ladder in 2024-25 but the Bulldogs are optimistic of a quick bounce back.
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A series of injuries cruelled Footscray’s Premier Cricket season.
The Bulldogs slipped to 15th this season, winning four games, after six wins and an 11th-placed finish in 2023-24.
Boom recruit Jack Prestwidge, opener Aiman Nadeem, spinner Bailey Toseland all missed chucks of the season, while such was the club’s bad luck, Josh Pace was hit by a car and broke both wrists.
The club’s highlight was certainly the Round 15 win over St Kilda, chasing down 236 for a six-wicket win behind Toseland’s 5-49 and a 77 not out from Big Bash star Jono Wells in a one-off appearance.
Footscray coach Dale McDonald said with adversity came opportunity.
“Obviously from a results point of view we’re disappointed with the season we had,” McDonald said.
“However, and I don’t like to use it as an excuse, a lot of injuries stretched our depth through all the grades.
“That said, the Seconds and Fourths were only one game out of finals, and from a Fourths point of view that’s the most win we’ve had in four or five years.
“So while you can look at it negatively, there were a lot of opportunities for players to show what they’re capable of.
“We had four or five debutants in our First XI, which then flows into the Seconds, Thirds and Fourths, and - there’s a bit of overlap - we played 27 players in each grade, which isn’t ideal.
“We had three guys go down with back stress fractures, Aiman Nadeem broke his foot, Jack Prestwidge didn’t bowl a ball and Bailey Toseland has to have shoulder surgery.
“Our Second XI captain tore his Achillies in the last game, Josh Pace was hit by a car and broke both his writes, Jack Pysing needs shoulder surgery, Liam Mason had a side “strain and Umair Butt had shoulder injuries.
“When you have those types of injuries, it does stretch things a bit.”
It was also a down year for several of the Bulldogs key players.
Star opener Dylan Brasher was down on his usual output, scoring 579 runs after a career-best 733 the previous season.
Jay Vine dropped from 26 to 12 wickets and Max Birthisel from 18 to 15 poles.
However, there it was a renaissance for veteran wicketkeeper Dylan Kight, scoring 438 runs, including a breakthrough century.
Young gun Mitch Jamieson had a career-best campaign with 491 runs, Toseland finished with 22 wickets and Ben Roosenboom jumped from 22 to 26 scalps to announce himself as one of the leader quicks in the competition.
As such, McDonald is confident if the club can get a free run at it next season it can contend for finals without the need for major recruiting.
“Largely we’re pretty happy with the squad and we’ll strengthen where we’re able to,” he said.
“We’re not in a position to go out and top our with two or three players in the First XI because that goes against everything we’ve done in the past two or three years.
“We’ll get a number of players back from injury next year, which will obviously improve our depth again.
“We know we were in games for a lot longer than last year, against the better teams we were a lot stronger.
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“We’re very optimistic about what we can achieve next year.”
Nathan Caulfield finish the season as the second leading run-scorer in the Second XI competition with 514 runs at 51.4, while Daniel Raniolo snared 24 wickets.
“Aayan Nadeem (was good), Nathan Caulfield is still thereabouts, Daniel Raniolo had a really good year with both bat and ball and Blake Aggelis will possibly play more First XI cricket next year.
“There’s Aaron Harding, Liam Mason and who knows what might happen with Umair Butt, so there’s a lot of upside.”
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