Tamworth skipper Tom Groth had a quick turnaround from leading Tamworth to the McDonald’s Country Cup final.
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After returning from Grafton in the early hours of Saturday morning, the keeper-come-bus driver dashed back to Bingara to check on things at home before repacking his kit bag and heading off to Wollongong on New Years Day to begin preparations for the Australian Country Championships.
They get underway on Wednesday and will see Groth’s NSW Country side taking on Western Australia.
Groth is a seasoned campaigner for the Bush Blues with this years championships his ninth.
They’ve twice won the title in that time. He’d love a third, and believes they’ve got a side capable of doing that.
“I think we’ll have a pretty good side,” he said.
There are plenty of fresh faces with six of the squad making their NSW Country debuts.
Then there’s the experience of the likes of Groth, Kaine Harmsworth and Pat Darwen, and the motivation of home tournament success.
“It probably gives us a little bit more incentive, playing at home,” Groth said.
“We’d really like to win it.
“We haven’t won for a few years. W’re due”
This years tournament has seen a bit of a restructure of the format with the two-day games abandoned.
“They’re all one dayers and Twenty20’s this year,” Groth said.
It will make for a pretty jam-packed schedule with 11 games across the eight days.
Groth heads in in good form with the gloves and the bat, after scoring an unbeaten 64 in Friday’s final to dig Tamworth out of some early trouble.
“It was nice to get some runs yesterday, especially when the team needed them,” he said.
He’s had a couple of other not-out knocks.
“I feel like I’m batting pretty well which is always a bonus going away to something like this,” he said.
Not that he is really in the side for his batting and, batting down the order, he hopes he’s not required to too often.
South Australia head in as defending champions, and especially with the Twenty20s no side can be discounted, Groth said.
The big thing for them will be not dropping games they should win as they have been guilty of in the past.
NSW Country: Peter Gallichan (captain), Kaine Harmsworth (Central Coast), Tom Allen, Pat Darwen, Nick Foster, Joe Price (Newcastle), Djali Bloomfield, Keiran Gray, Ben Mitchell, Cameron Suidgeest (Southern ACT), Tom Groth (Central North), Jarryd Hatton, Jonathan Nicoll (Riverina) , Jordan Moran (Western).
