Gaz's thoughts on the first 8 rounds

We sat down with UTS North Sydney’s Director of Men’s Cricket, Gary Whitaker, to get his thoughts on the first half of the season.

What have been the positives out of the first eight rounds?

Overall it's a positive position we’re in as a club. Capitalising on that in the second half of the season is very important. I’m very pleased with 1s, 2s and 5s all sitting in the top 6 and PGs having their season in their hands.

There has been a huge effort from our bowlers and top batters to prepare for each game, particularly our quicks. There is also a lot of potential in the club – especially amongst our young spinners.

Todd, Ray, Ash and Rene are all doing great things and the players support each other in their development.

What needs to be worked on for the second half of the season?

Attendance rates at training are not where we need to be yet. This can be seen in the need we have to develop our fielding. I believe that, if we become an elite fielding club, we will get to the very top.

We also need to lift our batting performances in the lower grades. This comes from work done outside of training as well as at training. The batters who have been putting in the extra work have seen it bear fruit in their performances.

There were some close losses and draws in the first half of the season and we want to minimise those in the second half. We don’t want to look back at the end of the season and rue our missed chances.

Any other thoughts?

I look forward to helping our players continue growing their hunger to win.

Everyone at North Sydney has been very, very helpful and it is a club that is together. I have been around cricket quite a while and there is a good vibe here.

I’m excited for the second half of the season.