Team spots red hot
COACH Andre Borovec says competition for spots will help Geelong relaunch its season.
As the Cats prepare for a crunch clash against Melbourne University, Borovec said the return of all-rounder Brenton McDonald and the imminent comeback of speedster Jake Reed would only strengthen the belief in the group.
“It creates competition, of course, and the implicit nature of that means performance is going to be really important for individuals,” Borovec said.
“When teams are playing well, individual performance tends to grow as a result of that. It all comes down to role playing. Cricket is a numbers game, as we all know, but in whiteball cricket at Premier level, the roles that players play are valued higher.
“That’s been the real message, that with increased competition we’re looking for players to not doing anything out of their realm, but continue to perform their role and that will see us win more games than we lose.”
Geelong got its season back on track with successive wins over Greenvale and CaseySouth Melbourne and is now on the cusp of the top eight.
And with star quality in Tim Ludeman, Josh Cobb, McDonald, Reed and centurion skipper Eamonn Vines, the Cats can build.
“The pleasing thing in the last few weeks with the bonus points we’ve gained, it’s got us back up the ladder but we’ve still got work to do because the three-game losing streak at the start of the year was far from ideal,” Borovec said.
“It’s incumbent on us now to look on what we’ve done well in the last two weeks and build on that and make sure we have consistent performances.”
Melbourne University, Borovec’s former club, will be not pushover, having upset the previously undefeated Dandenong last round.
“It will be a great game,” Borovec said.
“They knocked over Dandenong, who is up the top and have a good batting line-up, so that points to Melbourne Uni’s bowling being particularly strong. “And they’re batting over the last 12 months has really improved with the addition of a couple of players. Tom Rogers is probably their key batsman.
“He’s a left-hander and he scores very quickly. He’s a smart player and a 360-degree player, so he’s got plenty of scoring options. But there’s also a number of players in their top order that are able to adapt to certain situ- ations and score quickly when required but also build an innings.
“They’ve got some depth in the batting now, which makes them a formidable line-up, and their fielding has always been a strong point.
“There’s a fair bit up for grabs, but above all, it will give us a good indication of where we’re at.”