WGCA: Cranbourne Meadows appoints Brent Shaw as coach

The Rebels in the WGCA will be led by an experienced cricket man who has held key management roles at Premier Cricket and suburban level.

Cranbourne Meadows' under-16 side celebrates its premiership last season.

Brent Shaw has a passion for cricket.

He enjoyed playing — “I had a decent technique, just found ways to get out” — but it was the off-field stuff that really piqued his interest.

It led him to become president of Moorabbin West at the age of 29, a position he held for 11 seasons.

Shaw then took on the job of administration manager at Footscray in Premier Cricket last season.

Now the 40-year-old is gearing up for a new challenge — as non-playing coach of Cranbourne Meadows in the West Gippsland Cricket Association.

He lives in Casey and wanted to get involved in his local club.

“To be honest I’ve done a lot of stuff in the administration side of the game and felt that the time was right to make the leap into coaching and have a go at it,” he said.

“So here I am.”

Cranbourne Meadows batsman Pardeep Singh on the attack. Picture: Valeriu Campan

While Shaw knows cricket, he admits he knows little about the WGCA.

It could be a good thing, with no preconceived opinions or “baggage” and he plans to approach the role with an open mind.

Cranbourne Meadows has had its ups and downs in recent seasons, experiencing premiership highs and relegation lows.

But the Rebels will start the 2021-22 season in the top grade, Premier, and Shaw is confident they can be “more than competitive’’.

Cranbourne Meadows batsman Sunny Paul.

He intends to have his players cricket-ready for the start of the season.

“I just want to go back to basics,” he said.

“Get the basics right and go from there.

“With the pre-season program that I’ve got planned, I think we’ll be right to go for round one.

“A lot of of it will be game based, all the drills will be game simulation, dealing with certain situations of the game, and we will work on our running between wickets and fielding. Just do the basics right.”

Cranbourne Meadows president Tony Soros said Shaw would bring “fresh eyes and a fresh brain” to the club.

“He knows his cricket,” Soros said.

“He’s brought forward certain ideas which is great.

“He is very structure-based and he is leading by example — he’s already taken charge with contact within our chat group.

“We’re going to do things a little bit differently than we have in the past few seasons and get a bit more structure involved.

“We’ve got a lot of juniors and he’s a one-club all-in sort of guy. We’re going to try and get everyone together.’’

Cranbourne Meadows has lost some players, including Sigbaut Ullah and Asim Raja, to Skye in the Mornington Peninsula association. But the Rebels are also working hard on recruiting.

“We’re hopefully recruiting some players from outside our league,” Soros said.

Shaw grew up in Tasmania and moved to Melbourne at the age of 20.

His father and uncle also served as president of Moorabbin West Cricket Club. Brent is a life member there.

“It is hard to leave the club that I’ve been involved in for such a long time but it was time for me to take on a new challenge,’’ he said.

“I wanted to get involved in the community where I live, too. So it made sense.’’

Shaw is keen to develop players from the club’s under-16 premiership side of last season.

Pre-season training will be at Casey Stadium, starting on July 29, at 6pm.