Tara Murray
Keilor believes a full pre-season under its belt will help the side return to the Victorian Turf Cricket Association senior division finals.
The Blues just missed out on finals, finishing three points outside the top four, having been in the mix all season.
With the core group returning, Blues senior cricket operations manager Guy Barbuto said they were confident of a good season.
“We haven’t had a pre-season under coach Duncan [Harrison],” he said. “It has been really well received.
“We think a good pre-season will be good for us with a young group.
“We’re going to be more match fit and we think we are better suited to two-day cricket. We will get more overs from our top line bowlers and we think we have one of the best bowling attacks.”
Barbuto said they were excited by the playing group that they had put together for this season.
Jarryd Clements is the main recruit so far for the Blues.
Clement, who made his first XI debut for the Blues in 2013 as a 16-year-old, returns to the club having been at Victorian Premier Cricket Club, Footscray.
He played 101 games for the Bulldogs, primarily in the second and third XIs, making 2228 runs including three 100s.
Former West Indian international Miguel Cummins is also on board for the full season, after joining the club midway through last year.
Damien Costigan comes across as an assistant coach and will captain the twos.
Barbuto said they were still hopeful one or two others might come across as well before the season starts.
On the other side, among those departing the Blues is Daniel Starvis and Josh Pace,
Barbuto said the loss of Starvis was a big one for the club.
“He is a big loss on and off the field,” he said. “His cricket IQ and his leadership we will miss as well. The work he has done with the under-18s and the young group.”
Pace is the latest Blues youngster to try his chance at Premier cricket.
Barbuto said while Pace will go places with his cricket, they were disappointed to lose him.
“It is exciting, but it hurts us a lot on the depth side of things,” he said.
“It’s disappointing not to be able to keep them after purring so much work into them. He will go places and we’re excited to see him have a full crack at his cricket.”
Barbuto said they had a couple of practice matches lined up before the season starts in early October.
