Tasmania preview: Tigers bullish despite departures

Those running the rule over Tasmania's prospects for the coming months might, at first glance, conclude they face an uphill battle to improve on a 2022-23 domestic season that saw them finish bottom of the Marsh Cup standings and second-from-bottom in the Sheffield Shield.

The two men responsible for nearly half their red-ball wickets last season, Peter Siddle (Victoria) and Jackson Bird (NSW), have returned to their mainland homes, as has one of the country's brightest limited-overs batting prospects, Ben McDermott (Queensland).

Arguably their greatest ever wicketkeeper, former Australia captain Tim Paine, has hung up the boots, while there is little expectation they will see rising star Nathan Ellis for much, if any, of the first half of the season.

A more thorough examination of the Tigers' stocks, however, should have observers sharing second-year coach Jeff Vaughan's optimism.

A good chunk of his playing list spent the winter away from the island in stints overseas (for Ellis, Matthew Wade and Riley Meredith), in off-season competitions in Darwin and Brisbane (Billy Stanlake, Lawrence Neil-Smith and Iain Carlisle among them) and for Australia A in home and away series against New Zealand A (Caleb Jewell and Tim Ward).

The performances in particular of Jewell, who scored 66, 16, 78, 15, 4 and 131 in the A matches in Lincoln, Brisbane and Mackay, have him as a smokey to replace David Warner in the Test team if he can maintain his strong form in the early part of the Shield season.

Off-season recruits Jake Weatherald (who spent the winter playing club cricket Barnsley in the UK) and Paddy Dooley (Brisbane's T20 Max competition) have also been busy. Both are now ready to make their Tigers debuts in Monday's Marsh Cup opener against Victoria.

Those who remained on the Apple Isle had the good fortune of being able to continue training on turf pitches under Bellerive Oval's innovative marquee, while the squad have also completed a series of pre-season games against Western Australia in Brisbane.

Jake Doran and Billy Stanlake both impressed in those games, while Vaughan is excited about the prospects of Charlie Wakim (who had a "hell of an off-season) as well as young allrounders Mitch Owen and Brad Hope.

Wade's commitment to play for the Tigers in both formats (as well as in the KFC BBL after re-signing for the Hobart Hurricanes) is a boon given the departures of senior heads Paine, Bird and Siddle. Jordan Silk and Beau Webster will also need to step up as leaders.

Overall, there is enough evidence to suggest better results and higher honours await this Tigers cohort.

Tasmania 2023-24 men's squad: Gabe Bell, Iain Carlisle, Paddy Dooley, Jake Doran, Nathan Ellis, Jarrod Freeman, Brad Hope, Caleb Jewell, Riley Meredith, Lawrence Neil-Smith, Mitch Owen, Sam Rainbird, Jordan Silk, Billy Stanlake, Matthew Wade, Charlie Wakim, Tim Ward, Jake Weatherald, Beau Webster, Mac Wright. Rookies: Nick Davis, Nivethan Radhakrishnan

Ins: Paddy Dooley, Jake Weatherald (South Australia)

Outs: Tom Andrews, Jackson Bird (NSW), Ben McDermott (Queensland), Tim Paine (retired), Peter Siddle (Victoria)

Possible best XIs

Sheffield Shield: Caleb Jewell, Tim Ward, Jake Weatherald, Matthew Wade, Jordan Silk, Jake Doran (wk), Beau Webster, Jarrod Freeman, Riley Meredith, Billy Stanlake, Nathan Ellis

Marsh One-Day Cup: Caleb Jewell, Jake Weatherald, Jake Doran (wk), Matthew Wade, Mac Wright, Jordan Silk, Beau Webster, Paddy Dooley, Riley Meredith, Billy Stanlake, Nathan Ellis

Last season

Sheffield Shield: Fifth

Marsh Cup: Sixth

The inside word with head coach Jeff Vaughan

Pre-season

"It was excellent to get up north to Brisbane. We were lucky that we had a fair part of our cohort away for much of the winter, some playing in the UK and some in some franchise stuff. But for the lads who were in Hobart to get outside (was beneficial). We're very lucky in Tassie to have a marquee, so we get on turf throughout July and August. To be able to play some matches in Brisbane as well is priceless. We were also able to get some of our players playing in the Brisbane T20 tournament. We feel very fortunate with the amount of cricket we've played earlier in the season."

How is the fitness of Riley Meredith and Billy Stanlake?

"Riley has had off-season surgery, so he's going to be right for our first one-day game. He had the IPL and then came back for surgery, so he was a little bit behind the others but we've had these first one-dayers on the calendar all the way through for him and, touch wood, he's on target to play in those.

"With Billy, we made the decision late last year not to push it too much. Through three or four different occasions throughout the year (last season) he was on the cusp of playing either some T20 or one-day cricket for us, but just had a couple of niggles throughout. Then he played in a second XI game and we thought, look we can't win the Shield so we made a decision to give him his break while we were still finishing off our season. Then we get him going earlier so that he would be better set for the off-season stuff, the Darwin and Brisbane tournaments.

"Credit to Bill, he's done a lot of work in times when others have had some break periods, but credit to hm for the commitment he's shown, along with our physical staff and bowling coach, Robbie Cassell, to get him where he currently is. He's a pretty exciting prospect – his ability to bowl fast and get some bounce, and really terrorise some batters. Some of our guys in the nets have found it very hard facing him and probably try to find their way into another net. We're pretty excited by him. Full credit to him because it's been a slow process for him at times."

How to fill the void left by Jackson Bird and Peter Siddle?

"Not necessarily looking at it like that (filling a void), it's more a case of with those two moving on, it provides opportunities. We've got these guys like Meredith and Stanlake, but Neil-Smith, Gabe Bell, Iain Carlisle, Sam Rainbird and Ellis – we've got them in the stable and they were probably stable-bound a bit last year. It's more excitement about the opportunities it creates for them and we get to see them at first-class level and where they're at and what their futures look like."

Expect to miss Nathan Ellis for the early part of the season?

"Without knowing any real detail, he's probably one injury away from playing in a World Cup. We've certainly planned on him being with the Australian team. It's where everyone wants to be, it's where all our players want to be, so we'll support Nathan in any way and we hope he has the ability to play more games for Australia. You plan for both – if and when he does become available, he can slip into our team in different phases of the year.

Matthew Wade

"He'll play everything for us. He's explored some franchise cricket over the journey. He's made a commitment to Cricket Tasmania that he wants to finish his cricket with us and play Shield and one-day cricket for us, and he's re-signed with the Hurricanes too. He's in a good space at the moment, he's played some good cricket over the off-season in different places around the world. He's still a hell of a player."

Area for improvement

"The standard line there – for all teams in red-ball cricket, the ability take 20 wickets is going to be of utmost importance for everyone."

Player to watch (as nominated by cricket.com.au)

"Caleb Jewell should develop a lot of confidence being selected for the Australia A team, but also to play against New Zealand A and have some success – the feedback we got and everything we saw was that he did play his way. He matched it with the other players. We're hopeful he continues his upward trend. He's played some very good red-ball cricket for us and in both the white-ball forms. He's a very important player for us at the top of the order. Through performances he's throwing his name in the mix for higher honours and if can continue that form and the timing can be right, who knows where that could land in the next 12-18 months."

Young gun (as nominated by cricket.com.au)

"Mitch Owen is someone you're going to see more cricket out of this year. For someone who's six-foot-five and three or four years ago was bowling gentle little off-spinners, having worked on his body and his technique and ability to bowl medium pace, he's turned that into a capability of touching the 140kph mark. He hits the ball into orbit – he's a pretty exciting package in all three formats of the game. He's going to be an exciting watch over the next couple of years."

Team to beat

"It has to be WA, doesn't it? They've won everything for the last two years. It's hard for them not to be the ones under the pressure for all teams to be chasing."

Men's state previews 2023-24: NSW | Queensland | South Australia | Tasmania | Victoria | Western Australia