The gun Kyabram playing coach initially announced he’d stepped down from his coaching post following the Redbacks’ 2023-24 Cricket Shepparton Haisman Shield premiership.
However, much to the delight of the reigning premiers, McLay will return to his plate-spinning act and has decided to take back the reins for the Redbacks’ title defence.
The versatile paceman cited work commitments as the reason behind ceding his mentorship role in the first place.
But after a job change and a rekindled hunger for taking charge of Kyabram’s blueprint for success, McLay wouldn’t have it any other way.
“It came around about last January, I was doing a different job and it was probably just a bit too busy with work and then three kids and cricket had to give,” he said.
“But I’ve changed jobs which probably allows a little bit of freedom there.
“It was probably my doing, I asked the club to use it as a recruiting tool because obviously recruiting for cricket is pretty hard.
“There was a bit of an opportunity there to see what is out there and, once it all unfolded, I know the club had a few conversations, but nothing sort of went any further than that.
“So I said I’d love to do it again, I wasn’t stepping aside just because I didn’t want to do it. I’m pretty excited to do it again.”
McLay chipped in with 170 runs at 17 with a high score of 81 in last season’s Haisman Shield campaign while also snaring 20 wickets with best figures of 4-33.
He was a driving cog in a well-greased Kyabram machine, one which roared to life after an uncharacteristically slow start to the season.
The Redbacks will be without one of those cogs — Angus McKenzie — after the young quick penned his signature for Fitzroy Doncaster in Victorian Premier Cricket, but seem to have retained the bulk of their bowling brigade.
Yet, McLay wants to see an improvement in that regard.
“I just felt last year we were a little bit off with the ball, we made some mistakes at key times in games,” he said.
“Especially in the one-day games and in those you only need one bloke to get away from you or a 5-10 over period where you let the game slip.
“It’s just making sure that we’re a little bit more switched on around that.”
Another sticking point emerging from last season was the side’s one-day stance.
Largely due to the latent start (losing four out of its opening five one-dayers), the Redbacks finished eighth on the one-day standings and did not qualify for white-ball finals.
In McLay’s eyes that has to change.
“Our game plan will probably be slightly different for the one-day stuff, we’ll probably go back to what we were the year before where we were pretty strong,” McLay said.
“We’ll probably go back and look at what worked there.
“But in saying that it’s a pretty fine line, I didn’t feel like we were far off in the early stages, we just had to tidy up a few areas.”
Stay tuned for Friday’s edition of The News for a full double-page preview of the upcoming Haisman Shield season.
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