The Dandenong Panthers will begin their Victorian Premier Cricket title defence this weekend after a stellar summer in 2006-07.By Paul Pickering
WITH a sublime 2006-07 Victorian Premier Cricket campaign now relegated to the history books, the Dandenong Panthers will begin their double title defence this weekend at Shepley Oval.
Having prised the two-day and Twenty20 silverware away from the inner-city powerhouse clubs, the Panthers will have a target on their heads this summer.
Despite retaining essentially the same squad as last season, Dandenong will begin the season severely undermanned – with stars Darren Pattinson and Kumar Sarna missing and paceman Peter Siddle underdone.
But with coach and prolific run-scorer Warren Ayres donning the pads for another season, the Panthers are likely to navigate through some early turbulence to make a charge at the finals.
The only notable off-season movements have been the retirement of Kim Cooper and the departure of Dave Prender to Berwick, with the club’s administration making a conscious decision to keep the successful group together.
“We deliberately didn’t go out and recruit,” Ayres said.
“We think this squad is developing and we want to push these guys through to play higher-level cricket – we don’t want to stifle that development.”
Of course, few would doubt there is scope for significant improvement in Ayres’ young group.
Promising left-hand batsman Tom Donnell is coming off an impressive season in which he compiled 584 runs, while all-rounder David Newman will be high on confidence after being named club champion in his first season with the Panthers.
There is, though, a strong possibility that state team service will rob the Panthers of the emerging talents of Pattinson and Sarna.
In fact, Sarna is currently touring Pakistan with the Australian under 19 squad and will miss the first three games of the season.
Meanwhile, Pattinson went under the knife during the winter to address a mystery ankle injury, but has encountered complications in his recovery and will be out indefinitely.
With Pattinson’s injury, much of the responsibility with the ball will fall on the shoulders of Paul Boraston, who shone in Dandenong’s historic two-day final win over St Kilda.
Given the unprecedented success of last year, Ayres conceded that the burden of favouritism could be the Panthers’ biggest challenge this summer.
“We’ve spoken briefly about defending (the titles), because it’s a different mindset,” he said.
“But hopefully they can respond and by the middle rounds we can be pushing our way towards the finals.”
Dandenong’s first hit-out will be against Melbourne in a one-day match this Saturday at Shepley Oval. The one-day format was the only frontier the Panthers didn’t conquer last season, finishing third behind Carlton and Essendon.
Perhaps there would be no better way to signal their intentions for the summer than stamping their authority on the one-day competition.
