Tara Murray
The desire to provide a pathway for its junior female cricketers is behind Gisborne’s push to get a women’s side back up and going.
The Gisborne and District Cricket Association club previously had a women’s side playing in the Cricket Victoria Community Women’s Cricket Competition, but hasn’t fielded a team since the 2018-19 season.
The club has been advertising for players and a coach in recent weeks to have a side in the GDCA competition in the upcoming season.
Dragons secretary Jim Hynes said they had a really good junior girls program and they wanted to make sure that they had somewhere to play when they were too old to play under-18s.
“We are keen to get it back,” he said. “It’s now been four or five years out of the women’s competition.
“Over the last six years we’ve been running a girls program as part of the GDCA.
“We’ve had under-13s, under-15s and under-18s girls teams and we’ve won a few premierships which has been good.
“We’ve developed some good cricketers, who have gone onto bigger and better things. We want to have that pathway, if girls want to play in Gisborne once they are too old for under-18s, that can.”
Hynes said the reaction from the GDCA had been really good, as the association had been hoping the club would have been part of the inaugural competition when it started.
Hynes said there had been some interest from players in joining the side but they were still hoping to get a few more numbers before the season started.
“There’s some girls who already play at the club who are excited to be part of it as it’s another day of cricket and they love the sport and want to play as much as possible.
“There’s four or five girls from other clubs that don’t have women’s sides that are coming across as well.
“We want as many players as possible and ideally we can field two women’s teams as Lancefield does in the future.
“We’re a very inclusive club and all players are welcome.”
The club is still looking for a coach for the season. Hynes said ideally they can get a female coach to help the group grow their cricket.
“I’m a big fan of a female voice for female cricketers,” he said. “We’ve been advertising for someone to get some to help out with training and on Sundays.
“Ideally we can get someone with experience with an experienced female cricketer.”
The club had its first training session along with a come and try night last week.
Anyone interested in playing or coaching, can contact Jim on 0448 884 463 or jimhynes@iinet.net.au.
