James Dickinson has stepped up and taken on the coaching role at Plenty Valley.
The top-order batsmen captained the Victorian Sub-District Cricket Association side in the most recent season, in his first year at the club, and will combine both roles next season.
Dickinson said he had always been keen on coaching and was excited for the challenge.
He said coaching the club’s Craig Shield under-15 side earlier this year had ignited the coaching bug even more.
“I’ve been keen to coach for a while,” he said.
“Matt [Hewat] wasn’t going to coach again and I got the opportunity.”
Dickinson said one thing that was encouraging for the Bats was the young talent coming through the ranks.
The Bats made the qualifying finals in the Craig Shield, while the senior side had several debutants in the recent season.
He said they would definitely look to bring players through the ranks.
“I coached the Hatch [Craig] team and a lot of the boys will play seniors in the coming years.
“I enjoyed working with the younger boys.
“We have a really young group with a lot of energy.
“The two Di Battista boys [Justin and Michael] got the opportunity to play in the first final with Blacky [Simon Black] and Ryan Pearson missing.
“Tane Cotter bowled us to victory against Williamstown with the old timer [Sean Ayres].
“Daniel Smith and Sanjeet Ajgaonkar also made their debuts.”
Dickinson said the core group of last season’s group would return next season.
He said the likes of Daniel Heatley, Pearson, Black and Ayres would help him with the leadership side of things.
“It gives them some more responsibility and will help me out as well.”
Dickinson said they would also look to add a couple of recruits to the side, as well as continuing to promote within, with the second XI going deep into finals.
He said finding more consistency would be the first aim for next season.
The Bats were knocked out in the semi finals by Kew.
“The finals probably defined our season. We were a bit hot and cold.”
