With rain delaying this weekend’s action, new Camberwell Magpies Senior coach Ben Ryan spoke to Patrick Morrow about the upcoming season and his plans.
Ben originally from Melbourne is pleased to be back after coaching and administration roles in Canberra for nine years and is eager to lay foundations for the future at Camberwell this year.
Ben said he was privileged to get a coaching opportunity at Premier Cricket level back in Melbourne with the head coach role with the Camberwell Magpies for the upcoming season.
He pointed out the group has handled another pre-season under Covid constraints with a great work ethic and was impressed by their training during this unusual time.
With Ben leading a club with an average age of 21 he said they are eager to learn and develop their cricket to match it with the big boys.
“Ideally we improve our club championship position into the top eight and develop our younger players”, pointing out that every game this year is a winnable opportunity and believes forming a belief will guide them to success.
The playing group in discussion with him and the leadership during the pre season took comparisons to Richmond Football Clubs' now-infamous comments by CEO Brendan Gale who said we want three premierships in ten years and was ridiculed for the statement at the time. It is the same with Camberwell said Ryan, “embrace the history, present the main focus of being club first and believe we can do that in time”.
Ben will be looking at the leadership group to continue the message across the season and with the appointment of Ben Rowles as club captain, he believes the club has made a great choice.
Ryan also pointed out the likes of Tom Nelson who is in the initial Australia under 19’s world cup squad and Liam Fitzpatrick as impressive young cricketers and mature for their age, which is great to see and believes with club stalwart Andrew Fekete they will guide the team further this season.
Round 2 will see Camberwell play Dandenong in what will be an intriguing match and hopefully the right start for both Ben's and the playing group in 2021/22
Editor: Patrick Morrow
