Will Pucovski - 9 months of age to the Aussie test squad

I first met young Will Pucovski when he arrived at the Caulfield Cricket Club to support his father Jan playing in the First Eleven. He was, of course, only nine months old and disappointingly can’t remember the tip I gave him to follow a different footy side than his father. Will has gone on to follow in his father footsteps in a number of ways, supporting the beloved Magpies for one and developing a love of cricket another. The differences will come to light later on.

Will grew and after a few years discovered that my own two boys Jack and Sam were often at Caulfield and were keen to have their own games while the old blokes strutted their stuff out of the field. Five-year-old Sam’s favourite player back then was Brett Lee and he considered himself a tearaway quick of significant ability. Four year old Will was having little trouble with either of Sam’s pace or bounce and methodically stroked his deliveries to all parts of the grassy area known as the ‘Members’ at Caulfield. It was great fun for the senior players to watch these youngsters play with such energy and passion.

Eventually Will reached school age and went to Hampton Primary school; as luck would have located at the end of the street where Jan and Jules (Will’s mum) lived. Keen to be involved in all sport Will played soccer for six seasons, AFL for five and also had a few years involvement in tennis. While his prowess in all those sports was nothing to sneeze at, eventually his cricket involvement took over. Will talks fondly of his days emulating his Collingwood and Manchester United heroes but comes clean and confesses he never threatened to replace Pat Rafter as an Aussie legend. There is no doubt that playing a number of sports growing up has contributed to his physical and sporting development. 

Junior cricket was played both at school where Will led his school team to the Victorian Primary Championships as a wicket keeper batsman and at Hampton United Cricket Club. It was not that he didn’t or couldn’t bowl as a junior but he loved Gilly ‘Adam Gilchrist’ and as a result took the gloves when offered the chance. He was a natural keeper and kept the glove work going for several seasons across a number of levels of cricket. I can still remember a very nice piece of work to effect a stumping in that Primary School final out at Yarra Valley Grammar.

Hampton United offered Will the opportunity to play the game he enjoyed so much but more than that it offered the chance to play in a father/son team with Jan, his dad. As a ten-year-old Will and Jan would head off early morning to spend the day at cricket. Will was performing well in the juniors and looked a good prospect, but he was slaying them in the senior’s team. At just ten years of age he won the team batting average with a healthy average of 50.4. Jan also produced a few entertaining cameos that season but he was clearly outshone by Will’s performances. To be fair Jan was a bowling all-rounder; a ferociously competitive and talented fast medium bowler who took no prisoners. Will discovered this ultra competitive side of his dad and in the car on the way home from the ground pointed out to Jan that he had heard several words for the first time that day. Jan employed the only tactic he had; a “boy’s only need to know pact”. Will agreed to this pact and kept his word all the way home in the car. However, the sight of his mum greeting them at the front door was too much for the 10 year old who went in every detail about how dad’s conversations with the batsmen were slightly different to dinner table conversation.

During this period of time Will commenced playing some games at Caulfield Cricket Club with long time family friend Pat Lennon. Will immediately produced a half-century in the Subbies 3^rd X1 as an 11 year old and progressed into the 2nds. He completed Primary School and headed to Brighton Grammar for secondary education.  The following few years was a juggling act between school, club and representative cricket.

At Brighton Will managed to achieve a number of important outcomes. He Captained the side in his final year, won the batting average four years in a row, made a number of centuries, batted the combined APS side to victory over the AGSV and more importantly had fun playing cricket with his school mates. Throw in a fantastic cricket trip to the UK and it becomes obvious how school cricket was an important time for Will.

State selection became par for the course with Will selected in both his underage and open age years for the Victorian U13, U15, U17 and U19 teams. In other words he played eight years in a row. It all commenced in the Victorian Primary Schools U13 team to play in Toowoomba Queensland. Most would be expecting another brilliant set of performances, but Will endured a tough carnival, struggling for runs in the conditions provided. The team was also struggling compared with previous years and finished down the table. Will finished his carnival with a diamond duck, run out without facing a ball. Not to be deterred he soldiered on for the rest of the season and was again selected the following year as Captain.

Open age U13 and both years at U15 were successful campaigns without setting the world on fire. By open age U17’s he was obvious to those with some experience in cricket that as a player Will had some ‘old school’ qualities. He played each ball on its merit and accumulated runs as the game dictated. I watched Will open the batting for the Melbourne 2^nd X1 around this time, he was 14. He strode to the wicket with Ben Way and 40 odd overs later was 117 not out. The scoreboard read 0/238. Ominous signs of things to come if ever one had seen them!

Fiona and I shared a house in Adelaide at the U17 carnival with Jan, Jules and Will’s Grandparents John and Zuzanna. Adelaide threw up temperatures in the mid 40’s and we spent the two weeks watching great cricket and surviving the heat by swimming at Glenelg beach. The boys were having fun, the adults were having fun, they were great times.

From Toowomba, Perth, Adelaide, Canberra, Hobart and back to Adelaide the Pucovski’s had followed and supported Will’s cricket journey. It took a nasty sideways turn in mid 2014 when Will was badly concussed in a football training accident. What followed was months of recovery and a series of highly frustrating setbacks. Just when Will looked set to really get rolling again he was floored in Adelaide at the same time as Sam and they unfortunately became know as the concussion brothers. Jan and I now know one particular eating established in Adelaide as concussion Café as we spent more time there discussing the boys health than watching them play cricket. But, there was good news ahead.

The following summer Will broke all the records representing Victoria in the U19 series in Adelaide putting together four centuries in a row. The cricket world stopped to pay attention. Will returned to Melbourne and immediately churned out 165, 116no and 47 in the 1^st X1. The Victorian selectors stopped paying attention and started taking action with Will selected to make his debut for Victoria against NSW in the Sheffield Shield. He put together 28 runs in the first innings before a fielding mishap had Will on the sidelines with concussion issues once again.

The great news for all is that Will has endurance, resilience and wonderful family support. He worked his way through the health issues and has gone on to post 188 and 243 in Shield cricket, he continues to churn out runs for Melbourne and since his 69 against WA at the MCG has batted twice for the Demons scoring 88no, 82no in two wonderful run chases. I mentioned before how Will just accumulates runs as the game dictates. The good news is his ability to accumulate runs appears to have no boundaries.

We can’t wait to watch him play for Australia.