Renowned as one of the region’s premier fast bowlers, McLay will add extra stability and support for Redbacks captain Kyle Mueller as they look to improve on their Cricket Shepparton preliminary final appearance last season and push for a premiership.
McLay said it was a thrill to be taking up a more prominent role with a club he has dedicated such a large portion of his life to.
“I am very excited to be selected as the coach of the Kyabram A-grade, I have been involved since I was 10, so it is a bit surreal to now be coaching the senior team and I am now just keen to get back on the field and out of these tough times,” McLay said.
“Over the last couple of years I have helped Kyle Mueller run trainings and things, so I have a bit of experience and when I saw we were advertising for the role I just threw my hat in the ring to see if they were interested in me coming in and taking some of that pressure off Kyle.
“I have coached the under-16s before and really enjoyed that, so I am excited to now make the step up to coaching the senior side.”
He said the tight-knit nature of the group would make adjusting to the position easy.
“This club just means so much to me and growing up with a lot of the boys in the team now and also guided by those older players during my journey it will without a doubt make things easier for me,” he said.
“The fact that we are all locals and grown up together playing footy and cricket it is such a fantastic group to be around and I know they will support me starting up in this role as coach.”
With a team that has competed strongly in the Haisman Shield A-grade over the past five years, McLay said he wasn’t looking to change too much when it came to how he led the team.
“I won’t come in and do too much in terms of changing things as coach, I think we have made three of the past four prelims, so we are obviously not far off making that next step,” he said.
“My main goal is to just come in and bring a bit more structure around training and providing as much help as I can to all the boys as we look to improve together as a team and become a real force in the competition.”
When it comes to expectations for the upcoming season, however, he didn’t set any benchmarks as to what he believes the Redbacks can achieve.
“I am just looking forward to there actually being a season and hopefully getting back to some two-day cricket,” he said.
“I am not putting any ceilings or making any predictions as to what we can achieve this year.
“We will keep pretty much our whole group together, so if we can just continue to develop I don’t think we will be far off the mark.”
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