Subbies Cricket: How Croydon coach Tom McQuinn plans to climb South-East ladder

Incoming Croydon coach Tom McQuinn explains why the VSDCA South-East season ahead is looking ‘promising’ for his side, with the addition of some handy names...

Croydon will be boosted by the return of Chris Brown this season.

Incoming Croydon coach Tom McQuinn says improvement from the club’s youth combined with the return of experience will be the key to climbing the ladder in the VSDCA South-East group this season.

McQuinn landed the head coaching role at the Cockies in August following Jason Wylie’s decision to stand down due to work commitments, and said his side was looking forward to the challenge of taking on the heavy recruiting clubs in the comp.

The club finished 14th last season with three wins but the fast-bowler is optimistic the club can turn its on-field fortunes around this season.

‘Raring to go’: Tom McQuinn is optimistic about the Cockies’ season ahead.

“It looks promising – we’re just trying to build a good culture and a good work ethic and a good camaraderie among our group to push us forward,” McQuinn said.

“Obviously it’s very competitive with a lot of teams brought really experienced guys in, so it’s a good challenge for us as a young group to compete against those guys and learn on the run.

“We sort of had a few guys leave over the last couple of seasons in the back-end of their careers so we’re promoting the youth, and all our First XI are coming back so we’ve retained all our players.”

McQuinn pointed to the improvement of young gun Max Bradley, who opened the Second XI season with knocks of 110, 45 and 68 before playing in the First XI from Round 5. He’s set to feature alongside the return of experienced names in frontline bowler Chris Brown from injury and quickie Hamish Paterson.

“A lot of it will be natural improvement from young guys like your Max Bradley and Brodie Harrison, guys like that just getting more experience, playing at the First XI level is going to hold them in good stead,” McQuinn said.

“We’ve still got some good experience – Chris Brown missed half of last year, he’s fitter, he’s come back and he’s injury-free and Hamish Paterson’s first year back, I think he’ll be better again after another year back on turf.”

McQuinn believes outgoing coach Jason Wylie’s continued involvement will make for a seamless transition into the coaching role.

“It’s fantastic to have him on board – you don’t usually get the opportunity as an incoming coach to have the outgoing coach around to support you,” he said.

“To be able to share ideas and talk about the game with someone who’s fresh out of that role, and also assisting me from week to week, it’s just fantastic really.”

The young group has stayed connected during the off-season despite Melbourne’s lengthy lockdown restrictions.

“It’s a long off-season when you can’t see each other and it gets delayed by a couple of months,” McQuinn said.

“Because our group’s young, a lot of them hang around together and social media is so much better now than it’s ever been so the guys are staying in contact which is really good.

“I’m keen, I’m raring to go.”