NORTH STRIKE FORCE
IT has taken North Geelong’s Tom Mathieson just a handful of years to emerge as one of the GCA’s and Country Victoria’s most threatening bowlers. With the 22-year-old fresh off his second Australian Country Championship experience, along with a haul of 6-
WES CUSWORTH: Tom, congratulations on your first bag of the season, you’ve now climbed up to 21 wickets after the big tally of 43 in all forms of the game last year.
TOM MATHIESON: Thanks. I couldn’t really get it right at the start of the season, I don’t really know why. I have been more economically better this year than last season, which I’ve been happier about, even more than grabbing the wickets. The wickets have been more shared around this year.
WC: North does bowl in partnerships as well as any side in the competition.
TM: Especially when you’ve got Kingy (Shaun Kingwell) bowling maiden after maiden, and then Fitzy (Nathan Fitzpatrick) and I get to attack the stumps. As a team we know how good a job he (Kingwell) does every single week for us. Kingy and Fitzy work so well together because Fitzy is the attacker and Kingy will just dot them up and then it will be Bob (Mitch Troy) and I. Bob will just go through the overs while I can attack. We kind of work in pairs, which is good.
WC: Nathan Fitzpatrick has been a fabulous acquisition as coach, as a 20year-old he has an incredible level of maturity.
TM: It’s not normal, I want to see a birth certificate! He’s got the brain capacity of a 36year-old and it doesn’t make sense. It’s the way he coaches, he’s got everyone so involved in his game plan and everything he wants to do at training. He’s done an amazing job so far.
WC: Who do you look to for advice as you continue your development?
TM: We’ve got our three or four older guys that we can go to like Vass (Damian Vassiliou), Cam (Alford) and then you’ve even got the older boys at the club like Roger (Allen) and Neil Alford. Neil’s our batting coach and even Alf Clark is still around the club. But mainly on-field, Sam Hall is the one that I go to.
WC: Given you’re Daniel Weigl’s cousin, does that bring an added level of intensity when North plays Lara?
TM: There is between us two because we spent every Christmas together playing cricket in the backyard. I’m one up on him because I’ve got him out once, but he’s yet to get me. It’s a good little challenge between us.
WC: Was the second Country Championship experience in Geraldton much different for you?
TM: We played on different kinds of wickets, but still a good learning curve because you play with so many experienced people over there and everyone captains differently. Hopefully I can bring that back into North’s game.
WC: The word around town was that you were carrying a bit of a niggling injury over there at the championships, are you free of that?
TM: It’s my left shoulder and I am managing that at the moment. After Saturday I pulled up pretty well, so I’ll just have to keep fighting through that until I get time to fix it.
WC: There’s that bit of banter about the current North side being the best GCA side of the past 20 years. Do you sense that you’re involved in something special?
TM: I know we’re going to be part of something special, but I’m not sure about the greatest team in 20 years. I know we’ve got a good side at the moment and I know we can push late into March. We just need to get a couple of things right and we’ll be all good. WC: You clearly enjoy it when you get your time with the bat at the crease. TM: It helps that we have such a strong batting line-up that I don’t have to stress about it too much, but, yeah, I do enjoy it. I used to be mainly a batter in juniors, but coming into such a strong batting line-up at North, I’m happy to be known as a bowler. WC: You require a further 123 with eight wickets in hand tomorrow against Grovedale, you may be required to put those skills to work. TM: These are the ones that usually come down to the wire, but I trust our batsmen above me, that they’ll do the job pretty easily. But if I have to come to the crease, I’m happy to come to the crease. WC: Tom, thanks for being so generous with your time, all the best going forward.