Geelong to face Camberwell Magpies without Nick Speak and needing an important win
Geelong will have to turn around its Premier season without coach Nick Speak this Saturday, who has jetted overseas.
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Geelong will be without head coach Nick Speak this weekend as it eyes improvement with the bat to turn around a slow start to the Premier Cricket season.
Speak has returned home to England for family reasons and will miss Saturday’s home meeting with Camberwell Magpies.
The coach is due to return next week.
With rain hitting early rounds, Geelong has won just once so far this summer and sits 15th on the Premier table.
The Cats have no bowlers among the top 50 wicket-takers in the competition, while Daanish Mehta’s club-leading 129 runs ranks him 34th in the competition.
Geelong director of cricket Travis Agg said the Cats would back in its top order to turn its form around and get back among the runs.
“I don’t think we are that far off but at the same time you could be miles off,” he said.
“It is funny, we’re just in an interesting situation where it hasn’t quite gone to plan for us. I think on the surface our batting isn’t going great but they are all super good players so they will work it out.”
Agg conceded time could start to work against the Cats as the season progressed, but the club wouldn’t forsake long-term development for current-day wins.
“You are running out of games and then there is going to be a slip into red ball cricket post-Christmas which I think the whole competition is looking forward to,” he said.
“We have one eye on the future as well and we have got some really good players in the twos that are developing nicely and I think preparation for the future is going really well.”
The impressive step of Liam Blackford into state Second XI cricket – the young wicketkeeper took four catches for Victoria in the first innings of a game against South Australia on Monday – is one of several steps forward for the club’s young talent so far this season.
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Originally published as Geelong to face Camberwell Magpies without Nick Speak and needing an important win
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