SWAN HILL CRICKET CLUB – 2022-23
SEASON PREVIEW
SHDCA FAST FACTS
PRESIDENT – Conor McCreesh
A GRADE CAPTAIN – Cal Noonan and Nathan Spicer
SENIOR COACH – Nathan Spicer
LAST A-GRADE PREMIERSHIP – 2013-14
2020-21
FINISH – Seventh
LEADING RUN SCORER – Cal Noonan – 113 runs @ 12.56
LEADING WICKET TAKER – Cal Noonan – 11 wickets @ 16.27
SEASON PREVIEW
After enduring the season from hell in 2021-22, things are starting to look up for the once-powerful Swan Hill – with joint captains, a new coach and enough players to field two senior teams now giving the Swans the foundations with which to build their future.
While things are certainly looking up, there is still a long way to go for a club that endured a winless home-and-away season twelve months ago, especially for a team that scored triple figures just once with the bat outside of the McDonald’s T20 competition. While there was an obvious weakness with the bat, the Swans’ form was not much better with the ball – bowling just two teams out from their nine home-and-away games (Nyah District in Round 4 and Wandella in Round 9) and taking on average just four and a half wickets each innings.
That’s all in the past now, with the Swans securing the services of opening batsman Nathan Spicer, who will join the club as joint captain and coach alongside star young all-rounder Cal Noonan. Spicer comes to the club with big wraps, having played Division 1 VTCA cricket with Airport West St Christophers Cricket Club in Melbourne. Also joining Spicer will be Harjeet Virk and Sumit Kumar, with both players set to further strengthen the Swans pace bowling stocks.
Swan Hill’s captain-coach Nathan Spicer spoke with The Guardian during the week and was quick to acknowledge that his team’s bowling would be their major asset heading into the new season.
“Our pace bowling will be a big strength of ours – we’re probably a batsman or two short of being a quality side but our bowling I think will improve dramatically,” Spicer said.
“We have Andrew Clark, Sebastian (Linssen), Cal (Noonan) and the new recruits in Harjeet (Virk) and Sumit (Kumar) – when you throw in ‘Hatch’ (Alan Hatcher) as well, we actually have a pretty good pace bowling attack when they’re all together.”
While the Swans look to be on the rise with the ball, it will be their ability to post a defendable total that will be their achilles heel. The addition of Spicer at the top of the order alongside Jacob Hatcher will help in the longer formats, while big seasons from Noonan and wicket keeper-batsman Lachie Edwards will also be needed in order for Swan Hill to be competitive.
But while posting consistent totals of 160-plus will be a challenge – their main aim will be to grind out a competitive total and develop their defence, as opposed to blasting their opposition off the park, according to Spicer.
“One of our big aims will be to try and limit our batting collapses that apparently plagued the team last season,” Spicer said.
“From what I can see though, it’s not that the talent isn’t there, because I can see that there is a lot of talent within this group – but I think it could well be more the mental aspect of batting.”
“We’re probably going to play pretty boring cricket – but that’s the thing with young sides, we need to be able to get the one-percenters right first before we can start building big scores capable of beating the better sides.”
While Edwards, Noonan and the experienced Alan Hatcher are all more than capable of producing big scores, it could also be the time for Jacob Hatcher to take the next step and have that breakout season that he’s been threatening to do for a number of seasons. If he can – and Spicer is also able to have an impact – then Swan Hill’s winless run may not last too much longer.
WORD FROM THE CAPTAINNATHAN SPICER
“The feeling’s been pretty good around the club to be honest – speaking with a few of the guys, they’ve got high expectations and they all feel we’re in as good a shape as we’ve been in for years.”
“I come from a pretty successful club, where we play cricket to win and that’s what I’ll be hoping to bring to Swan Hill – everyone starts every season hoping to play finals and we’ll be no different.”
PLAYER TO WATCH
Cal Noonan – Was the Swans leading run scorer and wicket taker – all in his first season as captain last year. Is one of the most talented young players in the league and could very well be about to take his game to greater heights this season having now had a good taste of A Grade cricket.
INS – Nathan Spicer (Airport West St Christophers CC), Harjeet Virk, Sumit Kumar
OUTS – Nil
