Will Pucovski: From Hampton United to Australian Test squad cricketer

Will Pucovski is on the verge of Test selection, but his making in senior cricket was in a humble Hampton team — aged 10.

Will Pucovski after reaching his double century for Victoria during the Sheffield Shield match against Western Australia on November 9 in Adelaide. Picture: Daniel Kalisz/Getty Images

It was a down-the-grades game between one club’s fourths and the other club’s sixths.

There was nothing to distinguish it at the time it was played, over two Saturdays late in 2008 at Silliltoe Reserve South in Hampton.

Hampton United (4) was playing Omega (6) in the South East Cricket Association, then known as the City of Moorabbin Cricket Association, the CMCA.

United made 9-320 off its 65 overs in the H Grade game. Omega answered with 9-278.

Andrew Grant has always remembered the match, for two reasons.

The former Prahran District Cricket champion was playing his first game for United. And he had a 10-year-old teammate who showed uncommon ability with the bat.

The kid was only a little taller than the stumps. But he made an even 50, the first time he had hit a half-century in cricket.

It was Will Pucovski, one of three boys playing in the team with their fathers. Jan Pucosvki, Will’s father, captained United.

Thanks to MyCricket, the scorecard is available online.

But Grant did not need to run an eye over it to recall the details of the match. He opened the bowling and took two wickets. One of them was Omega No 3 Michael Soldatos, now an assistant coach at TAC Cup club Oakleigh Chargers.

“I reckon he was caught at square leg,’’ Grant said.

Former Sandringham VFA star Marty Lyons captained the Omega side and made 46 in the high-scoring match.

Grant cracked 82 but he remembers the game for the innings of Pucovski, who 12 years later, and after a dazzling run of Shield scores for Victoria, stands on the verge of Test selection for Australia.

“I thought from very early on – and I’d seen a fair bit of Will coming through the ranks because I’m good friends with his old man – I think from a technique point of view you could see very early he was very correct,’’ Grant said.

“Nothing really fazed him. He certainly wasn’t overawed playing against blokes who were 25 and 30 and 6’3 and 6’4. You could just tell from a technique point of view and a mindset point of view that he had something special.

“I think everyone could see he was going to be a reasonably special cricketer.’’

‘Something special’: Will Pucovski after being picked in the Victorian schoolboys team in 2009. Picture: Valeriu Campan

Grant had retired from Premier Cricket a few years earlier but Jan Pucosvki called on him to play in the side.

“Jan and a few other mates of mine whose kids were the same age as my eldest daughter decided to start a father-son team, and so Will and the other boys played with their dads,’’ he said.

“They said to me, ‘Why don’t you come down and play and actually coach them while you bat?’, which I thought wasn’t a bad idea.

“So that’s how I got to start playing at Hampton United, helping these boys in a game situation.’’

It was testing cricket for the youngsters. Grant pointed out they were playing against men who were competitive and generally didn’t take it easy on the boys.

In fact, he wondered if they would be out of their depth and could even be injured.

“I actually said to Jan and a few others, ‘Are you comfortable with this, because this could be quite dangerous’,’’ Grant said.

“Even though it was H Grade, when you’re 10 or 11 facing some of these much bigger guys, it would be bloody scary. But they were confident the kids could handle it, and they threw them in deliberately, just to test them. It was a good move.’’

Jan and Will Pucovski in 2009. Picture: Valeriu Campan

Grant said the bowlers tended to increase their effort once they saw young Will ticking over the runs.

“You could sense their thinking going from, ‘We’re not going to treat him like a 10 or 11-year-old any more, we’re going to treat him like an adult’ and they went harder,’’ he said.

“Didn’t matter. Will just kept getting in behind it. Like I said, nothing fazed him.’’

It was the first of three half-centuries Pucovski hit for Hampton United in H Grade that season.

He followed up his even 50 against Omega with 51 against Hampton Central and 71 against Highett, when the team chased down 3-353.

Highett stalwart John Krause played in the match. Years later he stopped Jan and Will Pucovski at a train station to talk about Will’s innings.

Krause recalls the whipper-snapper’s “immaculate defence’’ and strokeplay.

“After the game, we actually said, ‘mark that name down, put it in the memory bank, W Pucovski could go somewhere’,’’ he said.

“At the time we thought he was 12 or 13.’’

The youngster finished the season with a premiership flourish, scoring 30 retired as Hampton United defeated McKinnon in the Under 12A grand final.

Will Pucovski (front left) enjoying a Hampton United Under 12 premiership.

The McKinnon team included another future first-class cricketer, Wes Agar (Pucovski won the Bradman Award in 2018-19; Agar did the same 12 months later).

The following season Pucovski had a handful of senior matches at Sub-District side Caulfield, Jan’s former club. In his second game for the Fielders he scored 58 not out against Moorabbin.

And in December, 2010, he played in a Caulfield Second XI team with future Victorian wicketkeeper Sam Harper, whose father, Brian, was a prolific run scorer in Subbies.

By the 2012-13 season he was at Premier club Melbourne, starting in the Third XI and making 1. After Christmas came his first century, at age 14, crafting 109 not out against Casey South Melbourne at Casey Fields.

Pucovski shared a partnership of 182 for the sixth wicket with Tristan Lartner, who hit 113, his only ton for the Demons.

Will Pucovski cuts for Vic Metro in the Australian Under 19 Cricket Championships in 2016. Picture: Mike Burton

Lartner happily admits it’s a “pretty cool story to tell people’’ and he’s never shy in sharing it.

He remembers that Pucovski was given out LBW when he was 60 or 70. Lartner, thinking his young partner had got an inside edge as he tried to tuck the ball to the leg-side, muttered “You’re kidding’’ under his breath.

The umpire picked up his suggestion that Pucovski had hit the ball and walked to the square leg umpire, who agreed there were two noises. Pucovski was halfway to the boundary when the umpire changed his decision and called him back.

“He was 14 and the best batsmen I’d seen for someone of that age, and you could see he was going to be an absolute star,’’ Lartner, now 35 and retired, said.

“That hundred was exceptional. As he does now, he looked like he had that little bit extra time. He never looks rushed. I was pretty senior at the time and trying to talk him through it but I think it probably went in one ear and out the other. He just knew what he was doing.

“There was no bulk to him but he could lay on a ball and cover drive it and get boundaries seemingly with ease.’’

Melbourne’s Third XI won the premiership that season, with Pucovski scoring 38 in the final against St Kilda.

He was on his way to the higher grades, the kid whose making in senior cricket was in a humble H Grade team.