Sport
3 October, 2019
Terang appoints new cricket leader
TERANG opening bowler Sam Munro will take on greater responsibility this year as captain of the club’s division one side.
TERANG opening bowler Sam Munro will take on greater responsibility this year as captain of the club’s division one side.
The 30 year-old school teacher has been appointed as skipper for the upcoming South West Cricket season, replacing outgoing leader Liam Geary at the helm.
He steps into the role from the vice captaincy, with Tyson Hay set to be Munro’s offsider.
Munro said the pair was looking forward to working together in what he described as a “big job”.
“Laz (Geary) is heading overseas with his girlfriend in the second half of the year so he thought it was best to step aside and let someone else take on the job,” he said.
“Internally, the club felt myself and Tyson Hay were the best two (players) to lead us without getting anyone external.
“We did look externally but we were unsuccessful (finding anyone), so the job fell to us, and we were both more than willing to step up and take that on.”
This year will be Munro’s fifth at Terang and while it will be his maiden campaign as skipper, he knows he does not need to look far for help.
He said his team-mates had plenty of experience behind them for him to call upon when needed, while he also took the reins of the top job once last season in Geary’s absence.
Munro said that game provided him with more insight to what he could expect come round one against Heytesbury Rebels next weekend.
“That was a big learning curve because I didn’t have to make all the little decisions that come with it (full-time captaincy),” he said.
“But I’m really lucky I’ll have Laz until January, and I’ve got Tim Keane, Tyson Hay, Josh Parsons and a few other players that have played plenty of cricket and are quite experienced to bounce things off.
“We have a good leadership group so I can run ideas, tactics, game flows by them to make sure I’m totally above (the situation) throughout games.
“We still want to be attacking as well as making sure we don’t let things get out of hand too much and as for my own game, it won’t change too much (either).”
Munro said he would not look at changing too much at the helm, but added he would have his own spin on some things.
“It’ll just be a continuation of what Laz has put in place and even further back through Brett Hunger,” he said.
“We just want to build on that and make it a place where people want to play cricket and obviously we want to utilise all the skills we have to create a really good team and create a really close culture.
“It’ll just be about continuing that pattern on.”
As for his side, Munro said Terang would have a similar list to last season with a few new faces.
“Liam Balcombe is back, he’ll be really good for us as a top-order batsman and off-spinner and he’s another one of those blokes who played in our grand final loss to Mortlake, so it’s huge to have him back,” he said.
“We’ve also got a lot of good young kids coming through like Huey Giblin, Bailey Kavanagh, Billie Baxter, those blokes we will ask a lot of throughout different parts of the year.
“We might lack a little bit of depth, but last year we were alright and given we’re all another year older, we’re looking to build on that.”
Terang finished sixth last year with three wins and two draws from 14 games.