After spending the past 16 years away from the club he cut his teeth playing with, Darren Wilson is returning to hopefully lead North Ballarat to a grand final win.
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Wilson was last with North Ballarat Cricket Club in 2003, which was the clubs last senior premiership and the last time they reached a BCA first XI grand final before their 2019 grand final appearance.
Speaking with The Courier, Wilson said he had no intentions of returning to the club in a coaching capability a short time ago.
"Looking back to probably about a month ago, coming back to take the on the coaching duties wasn't exactly on my radar," Wilson laughed.
"When the opportunity was presented it was almost too good to refuse coming back to the club where it all started for me."
Being able to coach and give a little back to the club that gave me so much as a player... that ultimately swayed me to take the position.
- North Ballarat cricket coach Darren Wilson
After leaving North Ballarat, Wilson spent time honing his coaching talent with both the junior and senior cricket programs at Ballarat-Redan Cricket Club.
During this time, Wilson watched from afar as his old club struggled to contend in the BCA before starting to region their composure over the past five years.
"As an ex-player and watching from afar, I saw the club really struggle at times. Over the past four or five years the club has started to really step up both on-field and off-field," he said.
Now after seeing North progress all the way to a grand final appearance in the 2018/19 season, Wilson know's his new side is not far away from capturing glory.
"Having watched last season the club probably finished a lot higher than they initially though they might so I think the expectations are now that winning a premiership is possible."
North Ballarat first XI captain Leigh Lorenzen spoke about his excitement seeing a club-great like Wilson return and the prospects of his new coach helping them take the next step towards winning a premiership.
"Darren has coached Ballarat-Redan juniors to numerous premierships so I believe he's more than capable of taking us that next step further," Lorenzen said.
"A bloke like Darren who has played at the club for many years, it's always great to have someone like that back."
Club president Brett Severino echoed the sentiments of his captain, saying Wilson's return to the club was because of his coaching acumen rather than his past playing ties.
"Darren returning to the club is really just a bonus," Severino said.
"It was his coaching acumen that we were trying to get back. Since he left North his coaching prowess has improved over time and I'm sure he's going to bring tremendous value to not only our A-grade team but the rest of the club as well."
Wilson, Lorenzen and Severino all voiced their excitement ahead of the 2019/20 BCA season which is set to start in early October.