It’s a young but talented ACT Meteors squad that new Coach, Erin Osborne, will lead into Cricket ACT’s second century.
On Monday it was announced Osborne would take on the Meteors Head Coach role for the 2023/24 Women’s National Cricket League season.
And it’s a challenge she’s excited about.
“We’ve got an extremely young squad but a very talented one,” Osborne said.
“I’m looking forward to helping them progress in their careers, on and off the field.
“It will be a big few years of development and hopefully we get into a position where we can look to win titles.”
Having played for the Meteors (with many of the current players) and in the Assistant Coach role last year, Osborne has pre-established relationships with most of the players which she said will help make the job easier.
Former Coach Jono Dean will move to Head Coach of the standalone ACT Second XI side (ACT Comets).
Osborne said she’s grateful to have learnt a great deal under Dean in the last 12 months.
“Jono’s been fantastic, particularly with the transition. He’s moving across to the male space and looking after the Comets, which is exciting for him.
“He’s been fantastic in helping me with the planning. We’ve done a big review of what worked for the program last year and what needs changing this year.
“I’m really grateful for the time he’s given me in making sure we continue to progress the Meteors program.”
There are changes to the squad for 2023/24 with Zoe Cooke making a move to Queensland and the retirement of key players like Angela Reakes.
However, Osborne is excited by the young talent, who will be supported by experienced players like Rebecca Carter, Holly Ferling, Katie Mack and Carly Leeson.
With local players like young gun Grace Lyons (17) upgraded to a contract this year, Osborne said it shows the success of the Cricket ACT Pathway Program.
“I’ve been working with Cricket ACT for the last five years and it’s definitely something that we identified; we want to be producing local talent.
“We’ve got a Meteors development squad that sits underneath our Meteors squad and there’s lots of young players in that, that I have vision to play for the Meteors in the next few years as well.
“We’ve got our pathways right which is super exciting for us.
“Grade cricket is probably the next piece for us and ensuring that’s a really strong local tournament for our girls to play in, but overall I think we’re heading in the right direction,” Osborne said.
Opening bat Rebecca Carter, said she’s excited to have Osborne take on the coaching role.
“She’s someone who our group has enormous respect for in what she’s achieved as a player on the field and in the past 12 months as an administrator and entering the coaching space.
“You probably can’t get someone more respected in the Cricket ACT space than Os to lead us.”
Carter agreed that given the majority of players already have an established relationship with Osborne it will make the transition smooth.
“We can fast track the relationship building time and just jump straight into it.
“Coaching is a lot of player management and Os has those existing relationships, and that gives her an advantage as a coach, and us an advantage as players. We can delve into our skills and our craft and not worry about building relationships because the foundation is already there.”
At 26 years of age, and with lots of new young talent in the Meteors squad, Carter jokes that she feels old.
She notes that next season will be a time for her and the more experienced players to step up, lean into their leadership and bring the younger players along with them.
When asked if she thinks this new look squad is in a place to win matches, Carter said ‘definitely’.
“When you look at our results last year, the wins and loss columns probably look black and white on the surface, but we were ‘in’ the majority of our games, we just lost key moments and let a couple of games slip.
“The fact that we beat Tasmania, who went on to win back-to-back titles, there’s belief that we’re closer than what the scorecards suggest.
“Those wins came late in the season, so taking that momentum that we gained is certainly possible.
“We’re all competitive people, we’re here to win titles, not just necessarily compete.”
And with a number of new young guns in the squad for 2023/24, Carter said the Meteors are building for a strong future.
“If you look at teams who’ve had success recently, they’ve had a core group they’ve been able to keep together for a number of years. This is an opportunity for us to do the same thing.
“Cricket ACT is a destination now. We’ve got the facilities, we’ve got the resources and I firmly believe if we can keep the core group together, we’ll achieve success.”
We look forward to seeing our new look ACT Meteors back on the field in the 2023/24 WNCL season.
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Image: Rebecca Carter (left) and Erin Osborne (right)