By Marcus Uhe
The passion and drive of new president Ben White and the committee at the Beaconsfield Cricket Club was enough to drag prominent Dandenong District Cricket Association (DDCA) former player and coach Michael ‘Mick’ Cronin back to the coaching hot seat in 2024/25.
Cronin was announced as the Tigers’ new coach for the next three seasons last week, replacing Mark Cooper who held the role for the previous two seasons in a playing-coach capacity.
Cronin played 35 seasons of cricket at DDCA powerhouse Buckley Ridges including two seasons as coach, before stints at Narre South, and Gembrook in the previous West Gippsland Cricket Association.
Cronin’s son Jake remains at Buckley Ridges, opening the batting in their premiership-winning season in 2023/24.
A landscaper by trade, Cronin came into consideration after agreeing to terms to take over as the curator at Perc Allison Reserve.
Having stepped away from coaching due to fatigue and burnout, Cronin showed little interest in returning to the caper, but was compelled by the enthusiasm from the Beaconsfield committee.
“I said ‘I’m not really interested (in coaching) at this stage, I’ve got a bit too much work to do’, and Ben, the president spoke to me and said ‘let’s have another meeting and chat about it,’” Cronin said.
“At the end of the day, in my mind, I had had enough of cricket, but his passion for the game really put me over the line.
“I’m a real believer in, if you haven’t got the passion for the club, then I don’t want to be involved in it.
“We followed up with a couple more meetings and I wanted to make sure I was making the right decision for the club as well.
“The passion shone through and I thought ‘I believe you mate, I want to be aboard that.’”
Working closely with White and new captain Susantha Pradeep, who Cronin already had a 15-year relationship with stemming from their time at Buckley Ridges, were key factors in his decision to return to coaching after a five-year hiatus.
It’s a major vote of confidence in the club, which battled with the off-field requirements at Turf 1 level in 2023/24 with a small committee stretched to its maximum capacity.
On the field, the Tigers’ Turf 1 side managed to hold its place at the top level, breaking the recent trend of previous sides to have done so after climbing the Turf 2 mountain.
An Extraordinary General Meeting was held in late March with the prospect of a move to the Casey Cardinia Cricket Association set to be voted upon, but never came to fruition, due to the staunch support to remain in the DDCA from members.
There is a critical alignment between White and Cronin on focusing on the future and developing the club’s young talent, with the hope that they can pave the way to remaining in Turf 1 long term.
“Our main goal this year is to develop our younger players and give them more of a go in the ones,” Cronin said.
“It’s very hard to stay once you’ve won the flag in the lower grade, coming up to Turf 1. “Everyone expects you to go straight back down, and that was a massive achievement and one of the things I liked about them as well; they must be doing some really good things with some of their young players and the way they approach their cricket, which I’ve seen through the videos, which has been outstanding.
“I can see Beaconsfield going places if ben stays there for quite a while and the current committee they’ve got, they’re very passionate people, and that’s what drew me to come on board.
“It’s mainly Ben, but the people and what they achieved last year was outstanding.”
White said the appointment came following a decision to depart from the joint captain-coach model and offer stronger infrastructure around Pradeep.
“The role that ‘Coops’ was playing previously was probably too big for any one person, to be First XI captain of a Turf 1 side, coach the whole club and really get that development through not only the First XI but your second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth and junior program,” White said.
“We were looking for ways to support Susa off the field and give that opportunity for development for the whole club.
“We were going to do that more through committee and legends of the club that are still playing at a reasonably high level, we were going to share the load on that and then ‘Mick’ came into the frame.
“I think he saw what we were building in terms of a strong young core of players and started getting excited by that.
“I think he has a strong understanding of where our group is at.”
