St Bernard’s secure star recruit from Subbies rivals for second season in a row
St Bernard’s secures a star all-rounder in a massive boost to its premiership hopes, raiding a Subbies rival for the second season in a row.
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For the second season in a row St Bernard’s has poached a gun recruit from Subbies rival Plenty Valley.
VSDCA Team of the Year all-rounder Nish Perera will join the Snowdogs in 2022-23, a massive boost to the North-East group semi-finalist’s premiership hopes.
Luring Rory Collins across last season has paid dividends again with the club’s leading run-scorer the catalyst for securing his former Bats teammate’s signature.
Perera has been a star with bat and ball for Plenty Valley since returning to the club from Premier Cricket outfit Essendon in 2020-21.
He topped the VSDCA wicket-taking charts in 2019-20, finishing with 31 wickets and followed it up with 22 scalps this season, while also hitting 276 runs at 25.09 and 346 runs at 28.83 in each season.
St Bernard’s were looking to replace spinner Ameya Gharat and have landed one of the top all-rounders in the competition.
Snowdogs president Brendan Davey was over the moon.
“We looked at the options and who might be willing to come across and having Rory Collins, he said he’d have a chat with Nish, and it went from there,” Davey said.
“Rory was the main driver and that’s one thing we wanted to do in bringing in Aaron Smillie, Kyle Adams and Geoff Kiker, our Second XI captain.
“Bringing those guys into the club is three fold; to improve us on-field, to improve us off-field and show what it takes to be an competitive club in Subbies and to broaden our network to get players in.
“Nish has played against Aaron and Kyle before, so they’re no strangers to him, and he’s got a good comrade in Rory, so it’s a comfortable move for him.”
Davey expects Perera to slide into the club’s top-four batsman and be a strike weapon with the ball alongside captain-coach and 2021-22 group leading wicket-taker Adams and Smillie.
“He’ll be top four I assume and the spin replacement for Ameya,” he said.
“He’s a far better bat than Ameya was, so it’s a two-for-one pick-up really.
“It bolsters our top-order, I don’t think any of our top-order walk away from the season thinking they had an excellent one – it was good enough to get us into the finals but not enough to go all the way.
“Nish coming in will help them and give them some confidence that they’ve got quality players around them.”
Collins was St Bernard’s leading run-scorer this season with 459 runs at 32.79, pipping Chris Spinella (421 runs) and Tristan Kassis (419).
St Bernard’s will now turn attention to bolstering its lower grades after earning promotion in the Third and Fourths.
The Snowdogs won Third and Fourth XI Division 2 premierships and will step up to Division 1 in 2022-23.
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Davey said the club was looking to make a strong start to life in the higher grade.
“We’re still looking to bolster our Seconds, Thirds and Fourths and Fifths,” he said.
“Our Thirds and Fourths will go to Division 1, they were minor premier and premier this season, and that’s a step up.
“Hopefully we can bolster those grades and make life difficult for those teams at the top.”
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