It may be a little too early in the season to be choosing a premiership favourite, but Darley is looking more and more like one.
The Lions have enjoyed a perfect start to the Ballarat Cricket Association season, beating last season’s top three sides in the opening three rounds.
The club’s dominance was highlighted on Saturday when it completed an outright win over Napoleons/Sebastopol.
It’s the perfect start for new captain-coach Heath Pritchard.
After joining Sub-District outfit Werribee, Pritchard hasn’t missed a beat in his personal performances and leadership. As a player, he’s taken a competition-best 12 wickets at 7.08. Despite the hot start, Pritchard is encouraging his side not to take its eye off the ball.
“Clubs are obviously going to attack us now and if you want to be a good side and a successful club you have to get used to that,” he said.
“I certainly don’t have any fears about it. That’s what we’re impressing on the boys … nothing in our attitude changes whether they’re coming at us or they don’t know anything about us.
“If we play our best we do well and if we don’t then we’re vulnerable.”
After finishing eighth last season, the main turnaround for the Lions has centred on a sharing of the workload.
After previously being ultra-reliant on former captain Matt Cape to make runs, the Lions have shared success with the bat this season.
In round one, 18-year-old English import Harry Killoran played well beyond his years in a knock of 77 to guide his side to a win over Brown Hill.
And last weekend, first drop Richard Moore posted his season’s first half-century.
Although the pressure is now off Cape, it hasn’t stopped the middle-order batsman from terrorising opposition sides.
Cape has made 141 runs and taken eight wickets for the year.
“The club was never going to be successful being a one-man band,” Pritchard said. “The fact that we have had a number of different players stand up is great.
“In each match a different player has made at least 50.
“Batting has always been a problem; we’re not shying away from that.
“To have other guys who are more than capable of making 50s but are yet to do so fills me with a lot of hope on the batting side of things.”
Darley will have the chance to continue its winning run when it takes on Coronet City this weekend.
