It was a weekend to savour for the Eynesbury Cricket Club.
The Eagles stormed to two premiership wins, claiming the Western Suburbs United Churches Cricket Association first and second XI flags.
Picture gallery: Eynesbury wins two premierships
While some clubs go years without tasting premiership success, Eynesbury’s dominance comes in just its third season since forming.
Club president Matt Scalzo explained that a change of mindset at the end of last season was catalyst for the success.
After the first XI was knocked out of the 2013-14 finals race in the first round, Eynesbury looked to strengthen its two-day cricket division by adding a second side, while its third XI remained in the one-day competition.
The adjustments took a while to click.
“At the start of this season we didn’t have the right balance across the three grades and our first XI lost our first match of the year,” Scalzo said.
“It was a bit of a shell shock, but we regrouped and worked hard, and after about round three or four we balanced all the sides out.
“The first XI finished the home-and-away season on top of the ladder and the second XI finished second.”
It was also a great season for the Eagles’ thirds, who narrowly missed out on making it a hat-trick of premierships for the club after losing its grand final.
For Scalzo, the overall success of the club capped off an incredibly busy year. As well as being the president, he is senior coach and first XI captain.
Having also founded the club, Scalzo said he didn’t mind having a lot on his plate.
“Coaching is more man-management than coaching because the boys are very motivated,” he said.
“Mainly we are pushing our culture and how we want people to behave. I think the club is really positively influencing guys who do come and play for the club with the culture and the standard we set. That’s a big focus we’ve had.
“Captaining the side, I’ve got great support through my vice-captain and captains in the lower grades. We share the workload really well.”
While the Eagles expect to celebrate their premiership success for a while yet, there are no plans to slow down the club’s development.
Scalzo said Eynesbury was aiming to
have a full complement of junior teams as well as two more senior teams in the next five years.
The Eagles are also looking to settle on a home ground.
“We don’t have a home ground at the moment,” he said, “but the council are doing their absolute best to look after us and help us out.
“In the next few years we want to get a home ground because we know that when that happens it will attract more juniors and more players.”
