Former South Australian Country all-rounder Tom Johnson will debut on Saturday in the season’s most eagerly anticipated match.
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“I came over for footy, but I’m actually really enjoying this year,” Johnson said.
“It makes me want to get back into playing cricket a little bit more and concentrating a bit more on it.”
Johnson moved to Wodonga two years ago as a recruit for the Bulldogs in the Ovens and Murray.
He had played a handful of SANFL games and represented the O and M in its win over Goulburn Valley last year.
Johnson played two games in provincial second grade at the start of the season, before playing five at district level.
He scored a century against Eskdale prior to Christmas and then played in Wodonga’s two Regional Big Bash T20 wins.
“There’s probably a couple of spots on the line at the moment, so if he can take one of them, he’ll definitely be in the top five group of batsmen,” Wodonga paceman Byron Hales said.
“The way he was hitting them in the nets last night (Thursday), he was just pounding everything.”
The 26-year old chose football over cricket in his late teenage years.
He was capable of bowling around 125 kilometres per hour, but a dislocated ankle during last year’s football season has severely limited his ability to bowl pace.
The middle-order batsman’s debut couldn’t be more timely given Wodonga is without the association’s best batsman of the past decade in Robbie Jackson.
The multiple premiership player is an assistant coach with NSW at the Australian Country Championships in WA.
It will provide the ultimate test of captain Jack Craig’s move earlier in the season to lower Jackson down the order.
“I just think he (Craig) wants to get away from that no Robbie, no Wodonga sort of thing,” Hales said.
Meanwhile, Lavington too will be without one of its most experienced players in Matt Sharp.
However, unlike Jackson, Sharp is unlikely to play a key role after landing his first senior football coaching role with Holbrook.
“With our boys being a little more experienced, we’re not as reliant on ‘Sharpy’, we’ve grown up a bit,” coach Robbie Mackinlay said.
