Sydenham-Hillside is ready for the challenge of the Victorian Turf Cricket Association senior division season.
It has been a rapid rise of the VTCA for the Storm, winning premierships in four of the last five seasons, resulting in it climbing from division 4 in the 2018-19 season to senior division for the upcoming summer.
Now the Storm is ready to hit the competition once again said new coach Warren Hackney.
“It’s going to be a big step but we’re looking forward to the challenge,” he said.
“We’ve been pretty fortunate and been able to hold onto most of the guys and top up a little bit by adding what we thought might help our push in the higher grade.
“So we’re hopeful of being competitive.”
One of the Storm’s big signings for the summer is Scottish fast bowler Adrian Neill.
Neill has a number of international appearances under his belt and has recently been involved in World Cup qualifiers where Scotland fell agonisingly short of qualifying for the ICC Cricket World Cup being held in India later this month.
“We’re excited by the fact that he’ll be able to offer us something a bit different to what we’ve had with his extra height and bounce,” Hackney said.
“So we’re looking forward to having him on board.
“We’ve also got a couple of guys who we’re looking to bring in who are not as big of names… but they’re guys that we envisage will help us improve.”
It’s Hackney’s first year at the helm of the Storm, after being a champion player of the club being the all-time leading first XI run-scorer, a five-time premiership player, a former captain amongst other accolades.
Now as he sets to lead the club he loves to senior division glory, Hackney is not setting a ceiling at what his side can accomplish.
“The first goal is to stay up,” he said.
“But we’ve been fortunate enough to climb through the grades fairly quickly, so each year we’ve not wanted to set any limit in what we thought could be achieved.
“Although this year is a much bigger step I feel than those we’ve taken in the last four or five years, we’re not wanting to put too much pressure on ourselves.
“So who knows if we do manage to get things right, the sky’s the limit, anything’s possible.
“We’d be wrapped to think we could make finals and if you can do that, anything’s possible from there.”
The Storm will face last year’s grand finalists Deer Park when the season kicks off on October 7.
Harper Sercombe
