Tara Murray
New Plenty Valley captain-coach Michael Rogneda is hoping the side can rise back up the ladder in the Victorian Sub-District Cricket Association north-west.
The Bats have become known as one of the stronger sides in the competition, but finished last year’s north-south season in 12th spot with just four wins.
For Rogneda, who joined the club last season and was a playing assistant coach, he knows those results aren’t what the club expects.
“We definitely want to get back up there,” he said.
“It’s not as enjoyable when you’re not winning and it flows onto training. The club has high expectations which is good and is a club you want to be a part of.
“The club is chasing premierships in all groups. They put a lot of value on the seconds, thirds and fourths as well.”
Rogneda said he had no hesitation in taking on the coaching role when asked by the club about stepping up into the role.
He admits the COVID-19 lockdown and restrictions had made it hard to get things going with the group for this season.
“You want to try and do a bit with the culture, being a new coach,” he said.
“You want to be stamping yourself on the group and things like that have been hard.
“It’s all about building relationships with the players and helping them improve themselves.
“Hopefully having a teaching background will help with building those relationships and take things in the right direction.
“You’ve just had to adapt, like everyone else.”
Rogneda’s hopes of climbing back up the ladder received a setback with last season’s skipper Ryan Pearson leaving the club.
Ryan’s brother Blake Pearson has also moved on.
Rogneda said both were good players and good people and would be missed. He said Ryan was like having two players, having made 326 runs last season while also taking 18 wickets.
Rogneda said they were hopeful that new recruit Nishal Perera would fill that role left by Ryan Pearson.
The experienced Perera comes to Plenty Valley from Premier cricket club Essendon where he played five first XI games last season.
Daniel Taylor, who previously played at Diamond Creek, is the other addition for the Bats. Taylor will bat in the middle order and can also bat.
Rogneda said the rest of the improvement of the side would come from within the club.
“It’s really exciting that the younger players are another year older,” he said.
“We’ve got players from the Craig Shield side starting to push through and hopefully some of the players in the twos will look to go up.
“Some of those guys are a year older, so they will look to play more significant roles with the bat and ball.”
Plenty Valley is scheduled to get its season underway on November 21 against Kew.
