Murgheboluc back to GCA1

MURGHEBOLUC’S on- field leaders have driven a majority vote to return to Division 1 next season.

The Frogs are back in Division 1, with the club accepting the Geelong Cricket Association’s offer to return to topflight cricket after a one-year hiatus.

It came after a backflip from the Frogs, who initially indicated they would reject the GCA’s offer before taking it to a vote of members.

Geelong City was officially dumped to GCA2 yesterday, just weeks after landing high-profile recruit Pat Richards from Leopold.

Frogs president Steve Doedee said almost 30 people voted on whether to stay or go on Wednesday night, with more than 75 per cent of members opting to play in GCA1.

“We had an extraordinary meeting at our club and it was a big attendance,” he said.

“We gave everyone the floor — everyone had a chance to have their say — and everyone spoke honestly. The rest of the members were courteous and didn’t interrupt and they accepted everyone’s opinions.

“There were guys who originally said ‘no’ to Division 1 but later messaged me and said I think we should go up, and there were guys who originally wanted to go up who later said we should stay down, so that’s why we had the meeting to give everyone their say.

“The overwhelming vibe in the room was, ‘Let’s get up there and give it a crack’.

“It was a vote of the people and there were a lot of young guys who were keen as mustard to go up and test themselves and they said, ‘Why not now’?”

Doedee said 26 people expressed their views on the night, while several more influenced the club’s decision.

“I said on the night, ‘You guys have made the effort to get here, as far as I’m concerned you can all have your say’,” Doedee said.

“We had 26 people give their opinions and that’s not including the texts, emails and messages on Facebook that I received.”

Members of the first XI were all in favour of promotion, according to Doedee.

“That was unanimous,” he said. “All the first XI players wanted to get up and have a go.”

Doedee acknowledged that many committee members had a change of heart, having previously indicated a move to GCA1 would be a detriment to the club.

“We didn’t plan to go up, but I have taken a lot of faith out of what I heard at the meeting,” Doedee said.

“There were quite a few guys on the committee who swung around as well.

“The committee is in favour of it, but there were a few who were maybe more in favour of staying down but are now more than happy to go up.

“And I’m buoyed by what I heard last night (Wednesday night). The good thing is there’s a lot of the young guys saying ‘we want to do this and we want to do that’.

“Our coach (Matt Middleton) got up and spoke and he’s already got guys who are contacting him saying, ‘I’m prepared to do this and I’m prepared to do that’.

“It might be a good move for our club, you never know, because my worry for clubs, not just our club, in the future is when the old boys drop off, who’s going to be there to run our sporting clubs?

“You need volunteers and a lot of the younger guys need to get in and start doing some things themselves.”

A yoyo side in the past, Doedee conceded the club would need to recruit heavily to be competitive in GCA1.

“That’s going to be the key,” he said. We’re expecting everyone to do their bit and if you know people, talk to people, don’t just leave it up to those on the committee to do it.

“We need everyone on board. We should be looking at everyone. If there’s some good cricketers on the Bellarine and they want to come and play Division 1, we should be going after them. We need to put the net out far and wide. We definitely need to recruit.

“We need to bolster our numbers in the top grade so it can filter down and bolster numbers in our lower grades as well.”