Winning a premiership was Jacana’s first milestone. Now the club needs to ensure it continues to build at a new, higher level.
After ending a 42-year premiership drought last year, Jacana will play this season in the Victorian Turf Cricket Association’s North A1 grade under the eye of new coach Brett Jensen, who replaces Praneeth Jayasundera.
“I’ve pretty much played most of my life at Jacana, though I had short stints at Torquay and Keilor,” Jensen said last week.
“I’ve always had the passion to coach and I want to help kids with ability to realise their potential.”
Jensen, who is also an opening batsman, was 12th man in the Jaguars’ premiership win. He said changing the way training was run was the first thing he’d done.
“Footy has held a few people back, which is not an ideal start to the pre-season. I wanted just a little more purpose and structure at training
“It’s a bit of a culture change. Getting people to commit hasn’t been our strength.
“With senior training, it’s about coming to training for some purpose, and to learn.”
It will be a different playing group for the Jaguars after the departure of some key players. Premiership captain Shannon Bennett and Casey Whelan have retired, while Jensen says it’s likely Telge Peiris will play elsewhere.
But a massive bonus has been the news that Jayasundera will return to play this season. Jayasundera won the North B1 best and fairest award last year, and only arrived back from Sri Lanka last week.
“We’ve lost a few to retirement, but we’ve got a few others who are keen to come back to the club,” Jensen said.
“Hopefully, we’ve been able to replace the talent we’ve lost. We spoke with a number of different players and hope to have a few younger guys step up and play big roles this season.”
Ashley Bradford is returning, while Lachlan Bradford, who played in the premiership, looks set for a full season after playing only the last six games last season.
Another former player, Rhys Brown, will also return after several years’ absence.
Jensen says the goal is to be competitive in the higher grade.
“The first goal was to make sure we set a good culture. We want to be competitive in this division and go from there.”
Jacana starts its season on October 10 against Avondale Heights.
