Captain’s Corner | Kyabram Fire Brigade, Leitchville-Gunbower and Tongala

This edition, Oliver spoke with Kyabram Fire Brigade’s Rob Salter, Leitchville-Gunbower’s president Jason Keath and Tongala’s Alex Williams.

Kyabram Fire Brigade

Ky Fire Brigade’s recent form has blazed the side into the top four heading into the major break, sitting at the top end of the mid-table grouping with Echuca South, L-G and BLU.

The Flames have been led by dynamic all-rounder Rob Salter, who has scored 112 runs so far at an average of 37.3 and is the leading wicket-taker for Fire Brigade with 14 scalps.

Fire Brigade has also been aided by the long-awaited return of coach Jon Varcoe, who has been facilitating training and development of the side’s numerous youngsters.

The team is attempting to give their next generation as much opportunity at the top flight as they can so they will be in good stead to compete for years to come.

“Jon (Varcoe) has been really good, having that professional voice and structure at training and on match days has been fantastic especially for our younger players,” Salter said.

“Some of the young guys are starting to come on, like Bohden (Learmouth), Jackson (Barnett) and Miller (Griffiths).

“We are trying to get as many games as we can into these young guys to give them experience.”

Salter also emphasised that consistent efforts from the whole team had led to the Flames’ emergence as a contender in 2024-25.

“We are starting to get even contribution across the board now, we aren’t relying on one or two players any more, which is good,” he said.

“Every game we are finding things to work on and improving as we go, so if we keep doing that I can’t see why we wouldn’t be playing finals this year.”

Leitchville-Gunbower

Leitchville-Gunbower has made a great start to its 2024-25 campaign, bouncing back from a wooden spoon the season before to emerge as a finals threat.

While the side sat in sixth position heading into the final round before the major break, L-G was tied on record (3-3) with Ky Fire Brigade, Echuca South and BLU with quotient the only thing stopping them from cracking the top four.

This positive start has been in large part to cohesive performances across up and down the squad list, with Tyler Jones’ 104 against Echuca South a stand-out.

Second year L-G captain Josh O’Shea wasn’t available for comment but club president Jason Keath had a glowing review of his captain’s leadership thus far.

“It’s his (Josh O’Shea) second year as captain, I think he learnt a lot from last year and has come a long way as a leader,” he said.

“He is growing into the position now whereas last year it was a big job for him because the team wasn’t performing well.”

Keath reflected on the side’s strong start and looked forward to hopefully performing well in the back half of the season to claim an elusive finals position.

“We’ve been pretty happy with our year compared to last year, we’ve made many improvements,” he said.

“We wanted to improve our early start to the season because last year we didn’t get a win until near the end.

“Everyone has been doing their bit, it’s been a solid all-round contribution.

“We’ll be keen to get a win over Nondies this week and go into the break full of confidence. We will need to do everything right to make finals from now on, there is three one day games after Christmas so we will be required to win all of them.

“The ball is in our court, so we just need to make good on our start and get there this season.”

Tongala

The 2024-25 season is much bigger than cricket for Tonny, as the club and town as a whole come to terms with the tragic passing of beloved players Luke and Benny Smith.

Luke was a regular in the A-grade line-up for Tonny where he batted regularly in the Blues’ middle order, his highest score being 18 for the season.

The McMahon Shield side has only played five rounds this season, having had a washout and two byes.

Despite a difficult season for the club, Alex Williams has led the A-grade unit gracefully and has contributed well on the field, scoring 93 runs at an average of 18 and taking 10 wickets, the most for his team.

Williams reflected on Tonny’s season so far and his confidence that a win was only around the corner for the Blues and that any victories that did come their way would be done in memory of the Smith brothers.

“We are starting to get more runs on the board as the season has progressed, we have lost three games by less than five runs, so we are competitive.”

“That chocolate is coming, we have had blokes make runs and take wickets so when we put it together, we’ll get there.

“Obviously, we have had a bit of a rough trot the last month or so, it has been devastating for our club, but we will regroup and go again in the second half of the year.

“That massive tragedy that our community has experienced overrides any question marks we’ve had on the field, we just need to rally around the family that has been affected.

“I’m sure if we get a few wins on the board, the boys will be looking over us, and we want to pull through for them.”