WITH just one loss throughout the home and away season, the Swan Hill RSL Cricket Club went into last season’s Semi Finals as unbackable favourites – but as anyone who has ever played the game knows, cricket can be a funny game.
The Blues saved their worst performance of the season for that afternoon and went down to Nyah District by three wickets.
Although the memory of that day will still hurt the RSL boys, it will also be what drives Ryan Hinton’s men to go a couple of steps further in 2021-22.
Already possessing the strongest batting line-up in the SHDCA, RSL will be even tougher to dismiss this season, with the addition of Ammar Khalid from Swan Hill, along with the inclusion of favourite son Paul Munro, who has returned from Baranduda Rangers near Albury.
Munro will return to his home club desperate to taste success, having yet to play in a premiership for his beloved RSL and will likely bat in the top order; and may even open the batting alongside skipper Ryan Hinton after the departure of Ben Shepherd to Ultima-TUF.
Khalid on the other hand will slide into the middle order for the Blues and will be a great foil for the aggressive Stuart Patterson and evergreen Brenton Caldwell.
Shephard’s aggression at the top of the order will be a loss however and the Blues will need to find a replacement for him, particularly in the shorter formats.
However, with Jack Cook looking to play at least the early rounds, and potentially the entire season, RSL should have no problems in either setting a winning score, or chasing down any total put in front of them, according to their skipper Ryan Hinton.
“I’m hoping that it’s hard to keep all of us down on any given day, that there’ll be one or two that pop up with the bat – but we’ll pretty much back ourselves in to chase anything,” Hinton said.
“Depth with the bat will be our biggest strength, but if we can get a couple of the young bowlers like ‘Dalts’ (Tristan Dalbon) and Billy O’Meara, who have both picked up a bit of pace and grown a bit, if we can get them bowling well then that might change – but until then, we haven’t really added anything extra to our bowling, so it’ll be hard to sort of go outside our normal keeping it tight and bowling to a plan kind of structure.”
With the Caldwell brothers tying down one end and Cameron Cook continuing to improve each season, the Blues bowling will hardly be a weakness.
With a number of the RSL line-up getting older, the challenge for Hinton will be how to get games and overs into the likes of Dalbon, O’Meara and Charlie Kingwill, while still pushing to win every game.
“One of our main aims this year is to see if we can get a few of the younger blokes to click with the older guys that are starting to make room for them, so us older guys are not relied upon as much,” Hinton said.
“I’d be disappointed if we didn’t make finals – and then with our experience, I wouldn’t want to play us if we make it.”
WORDS FROM THE CAPTAIN – BEN SHADBOLT
“We were a bit stunned by Nyah in last year’s Semi Final – you’re always aiming to finish at the top, but I really don’t know what to make of Wandella. They’ll be a tough side and I don’t think there’ll be any easy games this season.”
PLAYER TO WATCH
Cameron Cook – Opening bowler Cook has been steadily improving over a number of years, and while he keeps getting quicker with every season, it’s his consistency in bowling line and length that’s really improved. He took 24 wickets last season, including the McDonald’s T20 competition, and it’s now time he took control of the Blues bowling attack.
INS AND OUTS
INS: Paul Munro (Baranduda Rangers), Ammar Khalid (Swan Hill). OUTS: Ben Shepherd (UltTUFCC), Sebastian Linssen (Swan Hill).
