FORMER Merbein South club president Matt O’Connor will captain the club’s Sunraysia Cricket Association First Division side for season 2020-21.
The top-order batsman led the club for three seasons from 2016-17, before stepping down last season from that role.
A few games at the top level in Sunraysia last season piqued O’Connor’s interest in returning to First Division cricket.
“I probably stepped away from First Division cricket when I went into the role as president (for the 2016-17 season),” he said.
“It got to the stage where I thought I couldn’t properly commit 100 per cent to both roles, I didn’t think it was fair for me, for the club and probably for the First Division side.”
O’Connor admitted the presidency, taken on at a time when off the field Merbein South was struggling, was a bigger job than he first thought.
“I was a little bit cactus after the three years in that role and probably didn’t realise it would take as much out of me as it did,” he said.
O’Connor had some mild injuries last year and didn’t play a lot of cricket before Christmas
However, the ones he did play whetted his appetite.
“I didn’t feel like I felt out of place when I played, and I put my hand up and said I’ll make myself available.”
During his presidency, O’Connor took the reins of the club’s strong Second Division side, where there was a little less pressure than First Division cricket.
He had previously also captained and coached the Ouyen Rams in their formative years, moving to the club from Coomealla Wentworth in the days of the Ouyen and District Cricket Association when Ouyen didn’t have a side (Ouyen Rams are now a strong presence in the Red Cliffs Cricket Association).
Casting his eyes on taking Merbein South back up the SCA ladder after a seventh-placed finish this year, O’Connor was bullish about the side’s younger players coming through.
“Josh Carmichael has committed to playing, Campbell Griffiths we’ll have, Nick Dorman has indicated he’s coming back – you look at that and with Rob Roelofs and Hamim Miah as well, there’s that 20-25 age group we’ve got five blokes there that you can really build a side around,” he said.
“I look at it and think they just need an old head to go with some of these young blokes, I guess that’s where I come in.”
The Saints will be without the retired Shane Trinick and outgoing skipper Ethan Gray’s playing future unclear.
“I’m not sure what Ethan is going to do. I’d really like to have him, any bloke than makes a First Division hundred is a good player,” O’Connor said.
“He’s someone you can set and forget, which is fantastic, and he’s a good bloke to have around the place.”
