The quest for redemption has already started at Keilor Cricket Club.
Ahead of the 2015-16 Victorian Turf Cricket Association season, the Blues’ first XI went back to training earlier this month.
Fresh in players’ minds was a premature finish to last season. The Blues had dominated the home and away competition, only to be eliminated in a shock first-round finals exit.
While round one is still months away, Keilor has already had an early win with the signing of Victorian Sub-District Cricket association all-rounder Chris Lee.
Lee took 17 wickets and made 194 runs for Moorabbin last season.
Blues coach Mick Andreadis says the addition of Lee will complement the squad as it looks to bounce back.
“Obviously, we were disappointed with a semi-final but, at the end of the day, we’re lucky with the sport that we play that you get the chance to redeem yourself,” Andreadis said.
“We will be trying to go one step better next season. If we make a grand final, I think that will be par for us.
“If we don’t make the grand final this time, we’ll think that in the last two years we have failed. We see that as the minimum.”
It will be a slightly different looking coaching panel at Keilor this season with Andreadis set to share the role with Kaushal Lokuarachchi and Sean McManus.
Lokuarachchi’s focus will mainly be on the first XI, while Andreadis and McManus will be in charge of development throughout the club.
“In cricket clubs, the firsts always get looked after,” Andreadis said.
“Now we are looking to try and help the lesser-skilled players in the lower grades and help the younger guys transition from juniors to seniors.
“We have fantastic numbers in juniors and we want to get them to play as much senior cricket as possible.
“A lot of clubs lose a lot of juniors, so we want to retain as many of them as possible.”
The rest of Keilor’s squad will return to training at the end of this month.
