Tigers star to roar again
GROVEDALE has lured champion leg-spinner Barry Tsitas out of retirement in a recruiting coup that has also netted a trio of young stars.
Tsitas has confirmed he will return to Burdoo Reserve next season, having retired on the back of a 48-wicket campaign in 2018-19.
Tsitas, regarded as one of the GCA’s finest leg-spinners of the modern era, joins twotime premiership batsman Daniel Brew in returning to the Tigers. Tyler Emmerson is crossing from GCA2 club Torquay and Sam Coutts is moving from St Joseph’s.
“It’s been a pretty productive off-season,” new cocoach Nick Hyden said.
“I heard he (Tsitas) was going to play again, so I called him and said, ‘Are you coming back?’ and he said, ‘Yeah, I am’.
“He didn’t want any fanfare. He just wants to come back and get straight into it.
“But I’m over the moon to get him back.
“Even when he retired two years ago, he was one of the top two spinners in the comp.
“And speaking to him last year and over the off season, he’s still as fit as he was (in 2018-19) when he was playing.
“He was at training last season and bowling some balls and he didn’t miss a beat, so I don’t think he’ll have too many issues coming back.
“If we’re going to be playing more short-form cricket, then experience is going to be a real key, especially in those oneday games that can be 50-50.
“We lost some close games last season, and if we had Barry, we might have got over the line.”
Gloveman Emmerson will push for a spot in the first XI as Jordan Moran prepares to take a step back from wicketkeeping, while Brew will bolster the batting order and Coutts will strengthen the bowling attack led by Chris Young. It provides captain Luke Ford with a number of options as the Tigers bid for premiership success.
“I’m pretty optimistic,”
Hyden said.
“We finished off the season really well, we didn’t drop a game after Christmas, and the guys that we have lost played most of the year in the twos.
“So from a first XI perspective, we’ve added Barry and Brewy, who is a two-time premiership player, and Sam who has played first XI cricket at Joeys and Tyler who has played first XI at Torquay.
“We’ve definitely added to our turf squad and the twos won the flag last year and the thirds just missed finals, so from a club perspective, we’re bullish about playing finals.
“We should be pushing that top four again.”