DEVILS IN THE DETAILS
But Devils look to take it slow and easy
FINALS are firmly in the sights of Corio after locking in three key players to take care of coaching duties next summer.
Anthony Grace, captaincoach of the GCA3 club last season, will share the duties in 2020-21 with star bat Dylan Shelley and impressive seamer Jhye Kenna.
The trio have split the coaching job into three, with Grace to look after batting,
Kenna bowling and Shelley to oversee fielding.
Having crossed from Bell Park before the 2019-20 season, Kenna said he immediately felt at home at Corio.
He joked he had been tapped on the shoulder to take on a coaching role to slow down the Devils, who played in an aggressive and carefree style for most of last season. “I went (to Corio) to play with a bunch of mates and found they were just a good young group who love their cricket,” Kenna said.
“You get to really enjoy it but sometimes we lose focus a little bit, which is why I’ve been aked to step up and pull them into line a little bit.
“We lost a couple of games last year we probably shouldn’t have, so I’m hoping we can touch on finals at least (next season).”
Corio built a reputation as a side that could be deadly with the bat last season, yet its longest innings for the summer was just 65.4 overs, against GuildSaints in Round 5.
The hitting power of the Devils was best shown by a stunning total of 7/357 in 49 overs against Lethbridge, which included 218 from Shelley.
In a tight GCA3 competition last season, the Devils finished eighth but were just one game back from playing finals.
Batting the full overs available will be a focus for the side next season, to capitalise on the power displayed by Shelley along with Anthony and Mitch Grace.
“We will plan to just bat as many overs as we can,” Anthony Grace said.
“We have to change the style a little bit and not score as fast as we did last year.
“Scoring fast is good but if you aren’t going to be able to do it every game, you probably have to change something up.”