Top keeper steps aside to give youngsters go
THE Gold Coast Dolphins will have a new face behind the stumps for their 2017-18 campaign in the Brisbane Premier Grade competition.
Club legend Damian Wallis has hung up the gloves and retired as a player, although he will continue on with the Dolphins as the club’s head coach.
Wallis departs the wicketkeeping role at the age of 38 after starting his career at Kerrydale in sixth grade in 1993 and playing his maiden firstgrade match in the 1997-98 season.
Described by Dolphins long-time stats man and scorer Arch Morris as the ultimate clubman, Wallis departs the scene with 395 games in the sky blue cap, 217 of them in first grade and with 789 dismissals (635 catches and 154 stumpings) overall.
“It’s time to step aside for a younger bloke,” Wallis said of his decision. “We have a few young keepers at the club and I didn’t want to stand in their way forever.
“I feel I still have a bit left in me and that I could have gone around one more year because I believe my performances had been good.
“I’d been managing to balance playing and coaching for four years but now I’d rather see some young guys have a chance at the spot.”
President Jeff Pfaff said Wallis was a victim of being around at the wrong time for representative honours.
Wallis managed a handful of state second 11 matches but never cracked it for a Sheffield Shield despite being regarded as the best gloveman in Queensland.
“He lucked out there,” Pfaff said of Wallis’s misfortune of having to play second fiddle to Wade Seccombe, then Chris Hartley, in the race for a Bulls keeper’s role.
“He copped an era when all of a sudden keepers had to have a lot of ability with the bat although it wasn’t as if he was a mug with the bat at all. I cannot speak highly enough of him. In typical Wally fashion he has done this quietly.”
Meanwhile, Dolphins have provided four players to the Queensland side to play the national under-17 carnival next month. Max Conder, Hugo Burdon, Jack Cooper and Zach Hayes have all been picked.
The Dolphins first graders open their new season in a one-day match against Wynnum-Manly at Bill Albury Oval on September 2.