Vines primed to make big score at home: Buchanan

GEELONG coach Liam Buchanan is backing star captain Eamonn Vines to turn his lean summer around ahead of today’s clash with Kingston Hawthorn.

The 25-year-old, who has played three first-class games for Victoria, has managed 227 runs at 28.4 in Premier Cricket this season, well behind the 1674 runs he has plundered over the two previous seasons.

But Buchanan said Vines’s work rate and class would prevail.

“He got a nice 76 the last game before Christmas against Northcote and he’s a class player,” Buchanan said.

“I’m sure he’ll be disappointed with his start to the year — he’s used to having 500-600 runs on the board by this time — but you could tell the game before Christmas, just the look in his eye he was going to make runs.

“He’s worked really hard on the track and he’ll make a lot of runs post-Christmas.”

The Cats will go into today’s home clash unchanged, with Renegades keeper-batsman Tim Ludeman coming off a season-high 93 in tough conditions in last week’s thrilling win over ladder leader Fitzroy Doncaster. Hayden Butterworth is also proving a thorn for opposition bowlers, averaging 54.5 with the bat after his 75 not out.

“Tim hit everything in the middle and batted really well and that shows he’s definitely trying to prove a point and he’s ready to make runs at the next level if he’s called up,” Buchanan said.

“(Butterworth) has been great, averaging over 50 with the bat and taking some very handy wickets with the ball.

“Not only that, he’s a very mature player and he’s been a great help with some of the younger players around the club.”

Buchanan warned this was the type of game his side has dropped in previous seasons.

“Our opposition hasn’t had a great season but we traditionally haven’t performed overly well against bottom sides so hopefully we can take a bit of momentum out of the weekend and show a more clinical performance,” he said.

“The boys really clicked last week on a pretty tough wicket; the boys will take a lot of confidence out of the weekend.”

GEELONG FIRST XI: B. McDonald, N. Browne, A. Boyd, J. McDonald, H. Butterworth, A. Vine, E. Vines (c), D. McGlinchey, J. Reed, B. Couch, T. Jackson