St Bernard’s bolsters batting with internal and external recruits for VSDCA 2023-24

St Bernard’s has bolstered its batting line-up, securing a Premier Cricket talent, while a young gun will step up from the Second XI.

St Bernard’s has bolstered its batting line-up with a Premier Cricket talent.

Jevon Kett has crossed from Fitzroy Doncaster for the 2023-24 VSDCA season, joining full-time after a pair of T20 appearances for the Snowdogs this season.

The middle-order bat made one First XI appearance for the Lions, against Carlton in November, and made 147 runs at 16.33 in 12 Second XI matches after 398 runs at 28.43 in 17 appearances in 2021-22.

He also has First XI experience at Greenvale Kangaroos, playing 10 top-flight games, and Subbies rival Plenty Valley.

In two T20 appearances Kett scored 44, in a 109-run opening stand with Rory Collins, against the Bats and 20 against Endeavour Hills.

That experience, as well as a friendship with captain-coach Kyle Adams, led Kett to College Oval.

“He’s a lovely bloke, good mate of Kyle’s and will help our top-order batting stocks,” St Bernard’s president Brendan Davey said.

“He knows Kyle from his Greenvale days and just around the Premier traps, Kyle got him involved in our T20s.

“We got a bit of a look at him there, got to meet him, and he had a bit of interest from other clubs but we were able to sneak him in.

“We weren’t really active, as gung ho as we have been in previous years, but this one fell into our lap.

“When he played the T20s there wasn’t an inkling he was leaving Premier but when he picked up the phone and said ‘can I come play with St Bernard’s’ we were all in.”

Kett will be joined in the Snowdogs’ top order by Tom Winchester.

Winchester arrived at the start of the season from Greenvale but was forced to play Second XI for much of the campaign due to points restrictions.

Jevon Kett during his time at Greenvale Kangaroos. Picture: Hamish Blair

He took the opportunity to smash 436 runs at an average of 39.64, including a 59 in the semi-final loss to Caulfield, and take 16 wickets at 13.75 – earning him second place in the Second XI association best-and-fairest.

Winchester scored four half-centuries, with a best of 75 against Brighton, and took three wickets four times, with a best of 4-25 against Ormond.

Davey said he had made an instant impact at the club.

“He was a four-pointer, coming down from Premier, but he’s got a lot of mates at St Bernard’s – he’s an old boy, went to St Bernard’s and knows a lot of the boys,” Davey said.

“He’s an incredible human, he came down knowing he was good enough to play First XI but couldn’t break in because of points.

“Yet he was happy to, not only play, but applied himself to the point he was the second best player in the competition and won our Second XI club champion.

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“One thing he wanted to do was be part of a club and he was everywhere; behind the bar, helping out with covers, juniors, training, the works, he’s been a sensational asset.”

The pair will add important depth to St Bernard’s line-up, which scored the seventh most runs in the North-South group in 2022-23.

St Bernard’s reached the semi-final but went down to eventual premier Caulfield by 29 runs.

The Snowdogs also reached the semi-final in the Second XI and Fourth XI, again losing to Caulfield but this time by three wickets and Brunswick by 271 runs respectively.