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FAREWELL TOA XXXX GREAT GOLD - BULLS MICHAEL KASPROWICZ 1 111
WATSON INSPIRES REARDON TO GREATER HEIGHTS
The presence of superdedicated
national representative
Shane Watson
with the XXXX GOLD
Bulls for the second half
of last summer has had
a lasting impact on at
least one young up-andcomer.
Watson has received his
share of criticism from
the uninformed during
his injury problems over
the past two years, but
no-one works harder on
his game than the then
rehabilitating allrounder.
It was a lesson not lost
on talented 23-year-old
left-handed batsman Nathan
Reardon, who
upped his workrate and
was rewarded with his
first class debut in the
final match of the 2007-
08 season.
Reardon is one of the
young guns who could
step up and become a
Nathan Reardon goes on the drive against the Redbacks at
Adelaide Oval in a Ford Ranger Cup clash.
very good player for the
Bulls next season, and
he is working extra hard
to achieve his goals inspired
by Watson.
“Watching Watto train, I
realised how much extra
work he does compared
to myself and the other
younger guys in the
squad,” Reardon said. “It
was an incredible, a real
eye-opener. I realised I
could just keep going
along and playing for
Queensland but if you
want to be successful
and play for Australia
you have to do a lot
more hard work.
“I really enjoyed watching
him train. He’s a bit
more intense than myself
but you get an insight
into how he goes
about it. He spoke to me
about a couple of things
that I need to improve
to be successful.
“I spent a lot of time
with a bowling machine
and getting specific
things out of net sessions,
rather than just
going in there to bat. I
went in with a sole purpose
of trying to work on
things. One of those was
being more competitive
in the nets.
“Hopefully I can carry
that through to games
and spend more time in
the middle on weekends.
“I started to work a lot
harder towards the end
of last season and in the
short term saw some rewards.
I’ve still got a lot
of things to fix up in the
my game but hopefully
they come together and
I play a lot more fourday
cricket.”
Reardon admitted he
was ‘over the moon’
when told he would
make his Pura Cup debut
against Victoria at the
MCG last March. He had
flown down to Melbourne
as a precautionary backup
measure with a number
of players ill and injured,
and ultimately received
the call-up to bat
at No.5.
His first innings lasted
48 minutes while he
scored 18 off 50 balls,
although the second innings
stay was briefer as
he was out for one. Both
times he was lbw to medium
pacer Andrew
McDonald.
“My strongest memory is
that it took me a long
time to get off the mark
and everyone was in my
ear giving me a bit of
chirp,” he said. “I eventually
got off the mark,
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