Northern Raiders captain-coach Jimmy Elford speaks after winning the Warrnambool Moyne and District Cricket Association's premier division cricketer of the year for 2024-2025.
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00:00Jimmy, congratulations mate, how does it feel?
00:03It's a huge honour to win this award.
00:06Obviously there's a lot of good cricketers in this league,
00:08but for me personally it's one of those things where
00:12the league final is more top of priority.
00:18Obviously it's a massive award, it's a massive honour,
00:20but for me winning the league with the team is the major honour for me.
00:25You must be proud to help lead the club to their first finals appearance?
00:29Yeah, it is, it's a massive honour.
00:32It was one of those things when I first signed on,
00:34I said to the club that's my first goal,
00:36to get the club to their first Division 1 Premier Finals.
00:39And then hopefully their next goal was to win the league finals,
00:43so that's the goal at the moment.
00:45And Raiders have been extremely supportive
00:47and you've enjoyed your time at the club so far?
00:49Yeah, I've loved my time at the club.
00:50They've been super supportive of me,
00:52they've let me do things how I want to do things,
00:54which might be a bit different to how things are normally run,
00:58and I'm a bit of a different person,
00:59but I think they've let me do what I want to do
01:02and I think that's helped build the club to where we are.
01:04And you're enjoying the leadership side of things?
01:06Yeah, the leadership side of things for me
01:08is what I've always wanted to do.
01:10I sort of wasn't sure how to find it or how to do it,
01:13but I think they've let me do it my way,
01:15which helps me incredibly.
01:17You had a good season last year,
01:19but has anything changed this year to go to that next level?
01:23If I'm honest, it's probably the two-day cricket.
01:25I get to bowl as many overs as I want
01:27and bat wherever I want and all those sort of things,
01:29but I think the group around me,
01:30I think the group of players is probably what's helped me.
01:33Obviously last year being, like I said,
01:35nine players in the Division 1 team last year was all new,
01:38whereas this year it's the second year
01:39we're building a group together
01:41where everyone understands each other,
01:43and I think that's the main key point.
01:45Everyone understands each other
01:46and we're all working together for the same goal.
01:48And it's been good playing on a good pitch?
01:49You raved about the pitch out there?
01:51Yeah, it helps.
01:52I mean, obviously probably not so much as a bowler,
01:54but as I say to everyone,
01:56it's obviously the best batting deck in the town,
01:58but I also think, for me,
02:01it's my favourite pitch to bowl on as well,
02:03so that helps as well.
02:04Sounds good. Well, good luck for the finals.
02:05Thank you very much.