RSL-Colts stalwart Jason Ryan admits his side will rely on its core group of spinners as it looks to overcome the loss of a trio of bowlers for this coming RSL-Whitney Cup season.
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The defending first grade titleholders will start their 2017/18 campaign with a grand final rematch against Souths at Lady Cutler 2 over the next two Saturdays, but will be without several players.
Missing from the side that played in the thrilling decider against the Hornets will be Greg Buckley, Tim Cox, Jake Caudwell and Ryan himself, while the likes of Marty Jeffrey and Tom Atlee could be involved with Dubbo’s Western Premier League side.
With such a disrupted start, it’s hard to imagine that Colts will make the same flying start to the season as they did in 2016/17, which set them up for the minor premiership and a title.
“Last year we got that big result with an outright win in the first game and it gave us a jump on everyone else,” he said.
“This year we’re playing Souths first up, and both sides will have blokes away so it will be hard to get that same kind of result.
“Tim Cox has retired, Jakey Caudwell has gone back to England, and Marty Jeffrey will leave for Sydney after his HSC, so we have to fill those gaps.
“I’ll be away for day one of the first round, and Greg Buckley is in England for his brother’s wedding so he’ll miss the first match and day one of the second match.”
While it seems like there’s a lot of outs for Colts, they will be boosted by the inclusion of leg-spinning Englishman Darrel Williams.
He jetted into Australia over the weekend and will fill the void that will be left by Jeffrey when he leaves.
“I’m pretty excited to see what Darrel can do. He comes with some good wraps on him, and I think he’ll be suited by our decks because they will be dry,” Ryan said.
“Between him, Greg and Wes Giddings, they will probably be getting through a lot of overs, and we’ll have Mitch Ashford as well who will spend a chuck of time in first grade bowling his off-spin.
“We’ve got Ben Semmler and Tommy Atlee as our new-ball options, and then maybe Brad Cox and Chris Morton to bowl seam-up behind them, so we will be relying a lot on our spinners, especially in the two-dayers.”
In the other round one RSL-Whitney Cup matches to commence this coming Saturday, CYMS will do battle with Rugby at No.3 Oval while Macquarie begins its campaign against Newtown at No.2 Oval.
