REIGNING Sunraysia Cricket Association (SCA) premiers Mildura Settlers will welcome back star all-rounder Mark Cleary this season.
Cleary returns after a year off and is set to further enhance Setts’ chances of back-to-back premierships.
“We have only the one new recruit this season – he’s a pretty low-key sort of bloke, not many people would have heard of him – Mark Cleary,” an obviously happy Setts’ captain Braidyn Turner said.
Cleary was the competition’s premier player before deciding to take a year off.
His return further bolsters Setts’ already formidable line-up, but Turner said his role would vary from previous years.
“He (Cleary) probably won’t bowl much – his body is not what it used to be so he will play mostly as a batter and maybe chip in with a few overs every now and then,” Turner said.
“The bowling workload will be left a lot on Coatesy (Luke Coates), Seamus (Keogh), Richie (Wyld) and Brack (Zambelli).
“We will be very similar to last year, but obviously Cleary will come in as a middle-order batsman and maybe top-of-the-order in one-day games.”
It will be Turner’s second season as captain and he believes he is better prepared to cope with the role despite leading his side to the premiership over Workers Gol Gol in his first year at the helm.
“I obviously had to learn a lot at the start of the year to get into the swing of things and just getting to know players and their tendencies – where they like to field, where they like to bowl,” Turner said.
“It took me a while – probably after Christmas it became a bit easier and I really started to understand what people liked to do.
“I’m lucky, I have got people like Richie (Wyld) and Cleary who are there helping me as well so it makes things a lot easier.”
Settlers again look like the side to beat as the SCA season gets set to hit off this Saturday with a one-day fixture.
Turner is expecting this year’s big improver to be Nichols Point who have added Brad Thomas and Shaun Mathews from Mildura East to their line-up and welcome back opening bowler Daniel Chapman from Merbein South.
The Pointers have been extremely active in the off-season as they look to make their first finals series since rejoining the first division of the SCA.
“I think Nichols Point will be up there with the players they have picked up,” said Turner.
“I’d expect Workers (Gol Gol) to be as prominent as ever with Shac (Thomas) coming back and Coomie (Coomealla Wentworth) were a dark-horse last year and they have some really talented players.
“I think it is going to be a good, strong competition this year.
“All sides have got some really good players, so I think it is going to be a really even season.”
Division one and two start on Saturday while the third and fourth grades do not begin until October 19.
Junior competitions get under way on October 12 and the women’s competition hits off on October 11.
