The committee thought it was timely to give an update on what’s happening off field.
Moving to Balwyn Park (Panther Park)
100% Going ahead and looking good, we’ll be moving on 13th of September (Balwyn CC is co-ordinating the move and the heavy lifting). Barring any catastrophic weather event the ground will be ready for Round 1 on the 10th of October.
Teams
2014/15 season was the perfect storm after the massive success the year before. Everything that could go wrong did but we move on. The positive is we have survived and have a tremendous opportunity to grow at our premier new location at Cherry Rd Balwyn.
The committee has received strong feedback from the large majority of players and everyone is still committed however there is a struggle to commit to the rigors of two day cricket. For this reason we’ll be turning our seconds into a one day team. Should there be a rise of interest for more two day cricket we can re-visit the option for a second two day team for the following season/s.
Our top end talent is as good as anyone in Burt Shield with players now having more competition on performing with only 1 two day team to aspire to and a large group of players still preferring this format.
We’ll still be nominating 4 teams, with the two lower grades playing out of Hislop (with the Club Rooms).
Captains
- Will McKenzie has been appointed club captain, he is an extremely experienced and tactically minded cricketer who is hungry to succeed at this role.
- James Grady has been appointed two’s captain
- Justin Dessent has been appointed three’s captain
- Daryl Gove has been appointed Vet’s captain
- Fourth’s captain still to be appointed / rotating captain
Training
As previously mentioned there is little doubt training dropped off last year, the committee felt lack of competition and pressure of playing two day cricket was the biggest driver to this. With the new teams structure we hope this improves numbers along with having more flexibility with proper nets, ability to train in the middle and a number of other options available.
Indoor preseason training starts on the 6th of September at Maddocks. Click that link for all the details.
The coaching situation is we don’t have a full time one. The committee will be running the schedule and will have designated training leaders each night.
Events
Our Housewarming will be a low key event held at our first game 10th of October (pending finalization of the fixture)
Call of the Card 31st of October (Cup day weekend) this will be our first major event and we’re pushing for a 1st XI home game that week which means we can really get behind the boys with the other 3 grades having a bye running into a unique event.
More events will be publicised when we get closer to the date…keep an eye on the website for updates.
Final thankyou’s to the outgoing
Chris K Prowse – no coach has put in as much hard work as you for The Panthers and the club is forever grateful. There is little doubt that the two grand finals we won in 2013/14 was a direct result of your methodology and vision.
We hope to see you all next week at training.