CENTENNIALS BULLS
- SQUAD: Joel Gurney (out), Ryan Gurney (out), Josh Kitchner (in), Ethan Muller (in)
- GOAL: To play finals.
- TEAM TO BEAT: City Colts.
- CWD SAYS: After starting the season strong last summer, the Bulls will be ones to watch early this BOIDC campaign. But without the Gurney boys they lack a bit of fire power up top. Could push for finals again, but more than likely a win-loss-win-loss type of side this summer. Mid-table finish on the cards.
- PREDICTED FINISH: Seventh.
'WE LOVED PROVING EVERYONE WRONG': TOOLE BACKS BULLS AGAIN
THEY were the team who surprised everyone, including themselves, in last season's Bathurst Orange Inter District Cricket competition but now everyone knows what Centennials Bulls are capable of.
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There's no shortage of desire among the Bulls ahead of the 2020-21 season considering they missed out on last season's finals by just a single point, and in the process made themselves one of the benchmark Bathurst sides in a competition dominated by Orange teams.
Their losses over the last two rounds of the previous season ended up costing the Bulls a place in the semis but they had still done enough to mark themselves as a team to watch in the future.
Most of the team's core are making a return for the maiden finals bid and they're ready to lead the charge for the Bathurst sides.
Captain Kurt Toole would love to see his side put in a repeat of that 2019-20 showing, with the addition of closing out a couple of the tight contests that didn't go their way last time.
"We were expected to lose and we had no pressure. If we had a loss then that was expected but when we kept winning and winning we thrived with the underdog status," he said.
"The boys really enjoyed proving everyone wrong."
There are some losses to this summer's squad, though, and there's no denying the absense of the Gurney brother, Ryan and Joel, will be a blow.
- READ MORE: BOIDC SEASON PREVIEWS | Orange CYMS
That blow is compounded when you consider that one-day matches are being brought into the competition this season, and those two knew how to put on a show in the shorter format.
But there's reason for the Bulls to still have plenty of confidence given the personnel they've retained and brought into the side.
"We've got Josh Kitchner coming in for us, as well as Ethan Muller because Stannies cricket isn't going ahead this season. They'll both be great additions for our side," he said.
"We had Blake Aubin out at the back end of last season due to injury and he's the core of our middle order so it's great to have him back."
- READ MORE: BOIDC SEASON PREVIEWS | Orange City Warriors
Those additions will certainly go some of the way to helping the Bulls achieve their goal this summer.
"We're definitely looking at that top four spot after we missed out by just one point last season, which was pretty unlucky, and we sat around that fourth and fifth spot throughout the season," Toole said.
Toole expects the Bathurst clubs to surge back into contention this season on the back of more one-day cricket in the draw.
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