The Gold Coast Bulletin

Dolphins counting on depth

- CONNOR O’BRIEN

GOLD Coast Dolphins president Jeff Pfaff says the Queensland Premier Cricket club’s investment in second and third grade coaches is reaping the rewards.

The Dolphins have had a season to forget in first grade with wins few and far between, most recently losing to Toombul on Saturday.

However the club have managed to build up quality across the grades, proven by their reserves being in the hunt for a rare triple premiershi­p (two-day, one-day and Twenty20 competitio­ns).

Pfaff said rather than launch an off-season recruiting spree, they will stick to their developmen­t mantra to bring future success at the top.

“We have faith in the guys that we bring through the system and all of them have got talent,” he said.

“It’s about getting the structure right around them.

“We have had some changes this year with some of the coaching set-up, having some individual coaches to be able to be there at seconds and thirds in particular and I think that has started to show some results, which is good.”

Former English first-class cricketer Simon Cusden has looked after second grade on match days, while Peter Ford has done the same for thirds.

“Because we don’t have a lot of experience­d players through the grades, we miss that. We have got lots of young kids who are talented but they just need a bit of experience around them to help teach them the game,” Pfaff said.

“If it was on the field it would be much better but second prize is getting some coaching structure around them to help them.”

He added it’d be ideal to have club legends such as Andrew Robinson spearheadi­ng lower grade sides but noted the Dolphins’ no player payment policy often sees local clubs swoop by offering big bucks.

The Dolphins are yet to discuss leadership structures for 2018-19 but Pfaff hopes standin captain Daniel Doran – who he described as “still probably the best leg-spinner in the comp” – plays on.

While second grade stayed in the top four with a 227-run win, Tom Rowley blazed 191 in premier grade to single-handedly lead Toombul (331) past Gold Coast’s 248.

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