Greater Northern Raiders have settled on streamlining their selection process one year on to sort better results.
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Coach Andrew Gower had been searching for greater stability since the debutants were forced last summer to pick a whopping 43 players.
The Raiders had leniently allowed players to head back to their Cricket North and North West clubs at will.
The focus has changed to a central squad of 18 players whose commitment is to the Cricket Tasmania Premier League side exclusively.
"They are fully aware that they're up for selection for the Raiders first," Gower said.
"That's the new direction that we've gone in. To have a fixed squad and to have less change each week.
"That will build a good culture, that will be a better team and the results will look after itself if we can get some stability with the same guys playing week in, week out.
"So really our focus is to make sure we have a more consistent team that we may have just one or two changes, not four or five again."
The Raiders will consider players for selection on form from Northern Tasmania's two regional competitions.
But the club did target bringing in key players with mixed success.
"We sat down and picked apart MyCricket [website] and I went to a lot of games in the finals series to identify players good enough to play Raiders," Gower said.
"I phoned each of those persons, and just asked them where they were at and what they wanted to do.
"Some just didn't want to commit to the Raiders - they were happy in their own little patch and others have grabbed the opportunity."
The two main recruiting goals were state offspinner Jarrod Freeman and former prolific runscorer Alec Smith.
The one-time Mowbray and South Launceston pair both declined the offers.
Freeman, who has a full-time Tasmanian contract, will continue at Lindisfarne while Smith, who had moved from Hobart in the winter, planned to seek out a Premier League club in Melbourne.
"We chased a couple of players from down south that had been Northern-based previously," Gower said, "we didn't have any luck, but I certainly had a crack."
Gower said the club held onto James Beattie and Jake Williams who were prime targets of Southern rivals.
Legspinner James Curran has been included in the Raiders squad after school commitments restricted his time in top-level club cricket.
"There would have been some sort of thought process for those guys to maybe head to Hobart," Gower said.
"I'm really happy that we were able to retain them to build our squad."
GREATER NORTHERN RAIDERS SQUAD:
- Cooper Anthes
- Miles Barnard
- James Beattie
- Blake Cassidy
- Jono Chapman
- James Curran
- Rhys French
- Brodie Hayes
- Brandon King
- Lachlan Newland
- Sam Omaheny
- Anish Paraam
- Ben Spinks
- Alistair Taylor
- Jake Williams
- Ollie Wood
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Andrew Mathieson
The day I realised I wasn't good enough to play for St Kilda or be the No.1 spinner for Australia was when I realised journalism was the closest I could come to follow my passion for sport. And it's not just about the scores for me. It's the back story behind the game.
The day I realised I wasn't good enough to play for St Kilda or be the No.1 spinner for Australia was when I realised journalism was the closest I could come to follow my passion for sport. And it's not just about the scores for me. It's the back story behind the game.
