Tara Murray
New Taylors Lakes coach Peter Brasher thought his chance to be a senior coach had passed him.
Having been around cricket for a long time, Brasher had been a junior coach, senior assistant coach and dad to some talented cricketing sons.
But this Victorian Sub-District Cricket Association season will be his first in charge of a senior program.
“It is a little bit exciting,” he said. ”It wasn’t something that I planned and I’m thankful they’ve given me the opportunity.
“The opportunity though came up and I grabbed it with both hands. I see myself more as a mentor coach.”
Brasher said the club had spoken to him about the role before advertising it as they were hoping to get a playing-coach.
When that didn’t come to fruition, they went back to Brasher who was more than happy to put his hand up for it.
Brasher has long been involved in the club.
As well as being a senior assistant coach, he has played a big role in their Craig Shield team.
He said seeing the juniors coming through there would be some exciting times ahead.
“There’s quite a big group coming through and it might take a few years to get them into the system,” he said.
“We’ve set up the last two years a Taylors Lakes Academy as well.
“We have 50 kids registered. We’ve invited some kids and then we’ve opened it up.”
Brasher said from a senior side of things they want to build on what they’ve been doing the past few years.
Only the first XI side out of the top four teams failed to make finals after a poor end to the season.
“The club’s first XI has won 12 games in the last four years and seven came last season,” Brasher said.
“We were in the mix with three or four rounds to go. We want to get our first XI into finals, I think it’s been five years since we have played finals.
“We also want to get our three other teams in the finals too.”
Brasher said they would have a different looking line up for the 2023-24 season.
He said the majority of their batting line up had returned, headlined by Steffan Roberts and Nilan Fernando.
The bowling on the other attack will be very different.
“Most of the bowling attack will not be returning,” Brasher said. “Most were overseas players.
“What that does is it gives some young bowlers the chance to put their best foot forward and take their games to the next level.
“Some have been in the seconds for a couple of years.”
Brasher said plenty of work would be done in the coming weeks having just been appointed.
He said they would like to add some more players to their list if they were to come available.
