LUKE WHO’S BACK
It wasn’t just Lara’s impressive win over North Geelong that had the Cats faithful exultant as the GCA’s top tier finally lurched into action last weekend. Equally so, it was the reappearance of a familiar figure thundering in off a long run as 106 first XI-game paceman Luke Wilson made his return from a single season sabbatical. Considered one of the Geelong District Football League’s finest big men, 30-year-old Wilson last summer took a brief pause from stringing together cricket and football seasons, preferring to focus on his work. But now he’s back with a bang and ready to steer Lara to success. He spoke with GCA1 reporter WES CUSWORTH.
WES CUSWORTH:
Congratulations on the return Luke, it’s great to see you back. You must be happy not just to have resumed your career, but to have contributed with three wickets in knocking over the reigning premier for what proved a gettable tally?
LUKE WILSON:
Absolutely stoked to be back playing cricket. After having a year off I felt it was one of the most enjoyable games I’ve played in. The energy was good and of course winning obviously made it feel a lot better. I felt really refreshed and it was probably as good as I’ve bowled in a few seasons. I was really proud of restricting them to 158, particularly after Sam Hall (50) and Layton McCann (45) were really going. I was super pleased to contribute, but it makes it easier when the other bowlers are doing their jobs. My first ball was a “full bunger” and I immediately thought maybe I should have stayed retired. It began to click in my second spell. That was it, I didn’t just want to come back and play but to really contribute.
WC: How did you regather yourself in preparation for this season, mindful that Lara was coming off a semi-final last summer and you would be expected to step up and contribute straight away?
LW: I’m thankful that the start of the season got pushed back, as had it started on time I would have been really underdone. The longer preseason helped my body as I was able to progress slowly up to bowling full pace. I’ve been seeing physiotherapist Bill
Dixon a fair bit to get the kinks taken out of my body from bowling. We’ve been working on that loading phase.
WC: It was a new-look |line-up last season in your absence, with Casey Young arriving and Mitch Heyward emerging to join Danny Hughes. With Danny now captaining the seconds and you coming in to form a threepronged pace attack, things appear quite different again.
LW: It’s definitely a new look. Even when I wasn’t playing, I tried to keep up to date with scores as best I could, spoke to the boys and went and watched one or two games. Mitch has improved out of sight from a few years ago. It takes a bit of pressure off me when we have two other blokes bowling decent pace. In seasons gone by it’s been me and Danny Hughes, but now we have three options.
WC: You’ll have to rely on the slow bowlers to keep the over rate ticking.
LW: Yeah, we’ve got Andy Hughes, Rob Pehar, Ed Kol and even Daniel Weigl will bowl spin if needed. The over rate is a tricky one and I’m glad I’m not captain having to figure that out. Mitch, Casey and I are pretty diligent on trying to get through our overs as quickly as possible.
WC: You’ve certainly contributed some nuisance runs across your 106 first XI games, including a highest score of 42 against tomorrow’s opponent Newtown and Chilwell.
While most people don’t think of you for your batting, is that an area of the game that you still take pride in?
LW: I’m glad you did your research on that. I might send that stat to Daniel Weigl. I actually love batting and I think that game in 2017, I came in at No.9. Obviously the lower you are the harder it is because you have to come in and go straight away, particularly in our side with a strong batting line-up. I reckon batting is the most fun you can have playing cricket, so when you get out there you want to try and do your best. I used to be an opening batsman in juniors.
If I ever get asked to be nightwatchman, I’ll put my hand up.
WC: Remarkably, as we speak, your best statistical performance of 7-61 with the ball, against Leopold, comes almost 10 years to the day.
LW: I suppose that shows how long I’ve been playing for. I remember I played Barwon Rockets the next day, so that was a good weekend. It was a real breakthrough game for me, where everything just
clicked. My mate Brad Phillips was keeping, and he took five or six catches as everything went to hand.
WC: So, in suffering some batting losses over the winter and fronting up with a newly configured line-up, has Daniel Weigl said much about expectations for this season?
LW: He’s pretty relaxed about things. We haven’t set absolute expectations, but you always want to be a side that aims to play finals and have a shot at it. We’re just ticking our boxes at training and putting in the work. “Weigs” is adamant that we have that positive energy around everybody doing their role and then what happens on the weekend happens.
WC: Lara’s future looks pretty bright if Daniel Weigl can replicate the commanding form he demonstrated with the willow last weekend in striking such a magnificent unbeaten 91.
LW: Yeah, that was superb for us, especially with Andy Hughes going down with injury. Daniel got a few starts last season and was a bit disappointed he didn’t go on as much as he wanted. Standing up and anchoring the innings through like that, he never looked like being in trouble. Fortunately, the pressure is not just all on Daniel as we have Robert Sodomaco, Brenden Miller, Ed Kol and Kaden Marum stepping up. Knowing he has other batsman he has faith in will allow Daniel to continue to play freely.