Garth Dean has been a coach long enough to know talking up a player's ability prior to a carnival can sometimes be detrimental.
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But the experienced mentor can't help but be a little bit excited about the thought of watching Dubbo young gun Tom Coady play at the upcoming NSW Country Colts Championships.
Dean will coach Western Zone at the championships with CYMS star Coady one of three Dubbo players in the squad.
Coady has shared his time between playing for CYMS and representing Eastern Suburbs in Sydney so far this season but has still reached triple figures once in the RSL-Whitney Cup.
The wicketkeeper-batsmen will captain Western in Albury next month.
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"Only being a young player, you don't want to put pressure on him, but Tom may dominate in the carnival," Dean said.
"He's scoring a lot of runs in Dubbo first grade."
Coady is joined in the Western squad by fellow Dubbo prospects Lawson Shepherd and Koda Sissian.
Batsmen Sissian has played for Eastern Suburbs alongside Coady previously while young left-arm quick Shepherd was recently named Dubbo's Brewery Shield captain.
Dean's 13-player squad is a relatively young one, with the majority of players in the bottom age bracket.
"It is a young team but a lot of that team won the Kookaburra Cup three years ago," he said.
"It might be a young side, but it's a very good one."
While it's only early days, Dean is planning to have the team meet up before they head to Albury in January to discuss and establishment team goals.
"They'll be given their roles in the team, to get the best result for the team and we'll actually talk about that as a team for what they want to get out of it," he said.
The Country Colts Championships will run from January 5-7, with matches in Albury, with Western to play Riverina, ACT Southern Districts and Greater Illawarra.