Tara Murray
Burnside Springs United’s focus on developing the younger players at the club is starting to pay off.
The club which plays in the North West Metropolitan Cricket Association has had 17 players in representative sides this summer.
Club president Michael Dalla Rosa said they had never achieved that before.
“We’ve grown to 250 members this season,” he said. “We’ve got 17 junior teams and 17 junior representative players playing this holidays.
“That’s massive for the club. We’ve never had that before.
“We’ve got 16 juniors playing in our senior teams too.”
The experience is starting to show at club level. Dalla Rosa’s son Ethan Dalla Rosa recently became the club’s first junior to score 100 in a senior match, scoring 109 not out for the second XI.
The club’s top men’s side which plays in the Vic Kyte Shield was third heading into Saturday’s game against RMIT, which was after deadline.
Dalla Rosa said they were happy with how it had gone considering the club’s focus this season.
“The seniors are doing pretty well considering it being a redevelopment season.
“Some other players are getting opportunities with at least one under-16 player playing each week.
“They’re doing okay considering. We can only grow from here.”
The club is focusing on the future having recently developed a strategic plan with some clear focuses about where the club wants to go.
The first focus is to get a turf wicket.
“There is such growth in the corridor in Burnside and Burnside Heights,” he said.
“Essentially we want to work with the juniors and we want to see them playing seniors and having some success.
“We’re in discussion with the council about the redevelopment of our oval. We’re pushing for them to part fund a turf wicket.
“We want to keep the kids playing here as long as possible.”
The club’s other main focus is to further develop their female program.
Tara Murray
