Inside the rapid resurgence of fast-bowling phenom Austin Anlezark after his back injury recovery

Such was the case on a hot February day at the Gippsland Cricket League final between Sale-Maffra and La Trobe at Drouin.

Among the guests assembled by Gippy region chair George Munro, the conversation turned to two young fast bowlers in the Sale-Maffra competition.

The slippery Nathan Whitford was playing in the final, and the word from Munro was that he was going to try his luck at Premier club Dandenong in 2024-25. Dandy had already recruited Whitford’s Collegians teammate Noah Hurley.

“Hey,’’ someone piped up. “Don’t forget young Anlezark.’’

At the time, it was easy to forget Austin Anlezark, from the Boisdale Briagolong club.

He was over the stress fractures that had surfaced 12 months earlier, but he was playing in Richmond’s seconds and taking few wickets. Then, whoosh, a reminder of his ability arrived like a summer storm.

Three weeks after that Gippsland Cricket League final, Anlezark was picked for a three-day match between Victorian and NSW Under 19 teams at the Junction Oval. The visitors batted first but Anlezark battered them, grabbing 6-27 off 13 overs of speed and swing.

Richmond put a highlights package of his bowling on social media and it made for superb vision: two batters were bowled (one yorked by a delivery that bent like a banana) and two more gobbled up by grateful slippers. The performance had Victorian cricket coaches talking.

A few weeks later, the Vics offered the 18-year-old right-armer with the easy action a state rookie contract.

All this after he had played only two matches for Richmond in Premier Cricket. Keep it quiet, but he’s yet to take a Premier wicket.

Victoria’s coaching staff knew about Anlezark well before he splintered the NSW Colts. Last season, he played for the Australian Under 19 team in a multi-format series against England in Brisbane, taking five wickets in two matches, and two years earlier he was involved with the Victorian Country Under 17s.

CV talent manager Tom Evans first came across Anlezark when Guy McKenna was working at Cricket Victoria as a coaching and talent specialist in Gippsland.

“I think we might have found a couple of decent young quicks,’’ McKenna told him.

Anlezark was invited to a “talent day’’ and Evans took a look.

“I remember the first proper session we had him, I watched him bowl a couple of balls and thought, ‘Wow’,’’ Evans says.

“This was from a few nets away. Then I wandered over to his net and just as I got there, he pinged some kid. And then as I was running down to make sure the kid was all right, I thought, ‘Wow, that was pretty easy good pace’.’’

Evans and CV talent development specialist James Miller both note that Cricket Victoria bowling coach Adam Griffith has likened Anlezark’s action to international Jhye Richardson.

Miller says it as a “beautiful’’ action. Evans describes it as natural and says it produces “quick pace without too much effort’’.

“From a potential point of view, we rate him highly,’’ Evans says of Anlezark.

“He’s got quite a lot of maturing to do with his body over the next little bit so it might be a slower trajectory for him than some others, potentially.

“But from a potential and ceiling point of view, I think it can be reasonably high if his body does the right thing and he can keep getting stronger and get on the park as consistently as he would like to.’’

*****

Austin Anlezark began as a full-time cricketer this week, still marvelling at his rise to the state squad.

“My manager (former Vics player Dean Russ) said he’d had a few chats with people at CV and said there was a chance (of a contract), but I didn’t know what to think,’’ he says.

“It didn’t really feel right, because in my eyes I hadn’t really done anything.

“So it went from him saying there was a chance to him ringing me before training one day, saying it would be a two-year deal. I was stoked. It’s such an exciting opportunity.’’

The locals at “Briag’’ were chuffed at the news, with many messaging their congratulations.

“That was pretty cool,’’ he says.

Anlezark moved to Melbourne in mid-February and is living at Mont Albert, sharing a house with three other young fellows, one of them his Richmond teammate Austin Bauer.

But whenever he can, he heads back to Gippsland to enjoy fishing and camping. He might be living in the “big smoke’’ but the bush is never far from his thoughts.

Anlezark grew up in Briagolong, started his cricket at Boisdale Briagolong and was selected in Sale-Maffra under-age teams that enjoyed success in Gippsland rep cricket.

With ex-Richmond player Ian Simpson the conduit, the Sale-Maffra association sent five players to Richmond’s Dowling Shield trials – and they all made the team.

By then Anlezark was playing First, Second XI and Under 16 cricket for his club, as well as Gippsland Cricket League Under 18s. He took 38 wickets for the season.

Anlezark joined the Tigers’ senior squad in 2021-22, with his parents Corey and Sharn clocking up the kilometres on the Princes Hwy as they took him to training and matches. He finished the season in the Richmond Second XI grand final team that lost to St Kilda.

Twelve months later came the call-up to the national Under 19 team and a First XI debut, in a quarter-final against Carlton. By then, injuries were starting to bother him.

“I felt pretty sore after playing against Carlton,’’ Anlezark says. “I got a precautionary scan through CV and then found a couple of stress fractures.’’

CV oversaw his recovery. He worked on his action with Griffith and Miller, and hit the gym with strength and conditioning coach Chris Williams. Miller saw a young man with “resilience and persistence’’ as he built up to a return to bowling.

“We did quite a bit of stuff off just a few paces with a soft ball for no load and we did a few little technical things,’’ he says.

“He just ate it up. It was, ‘Yep, not a problem’. He was going to do what was required of him. He did a lot of it by himself in a net, off a short run and with a video camera checking how his technique was going. That’s not all glamorous, swinging balls into stumps and nicking blokes off.’’

As it was, with the early rounds of last season washed out, Anlezark missed little cricket. He played two games with Richmond and also lined up for the Melbourne Stars in a match at the MCG involving the San Francisco Unicorns.

As Miller saw it, “he bowled the house down’’.

“At the ‘G with a fast, bouncy wicket, the keeper was taking the ball high back on the ring, he was beating people for pace, he was hitting first-class batters … everyone went, ‘Wow, yep, this is the Austin Anlezark we were hoping we’d see’.’’

Still, he went into the Under 19 nationals with not many overs behind him. Anlezark was disappointed with his performances for Vic Country, but he did take four wickets in one match and Miller is quick to point out the pitches were slow and suited the spinners more than the quickies.

When he returned to club cricket, he had a spell with Richmond’s Second XI. It was by no means a case of Tigers coach Shannon Young and his assistants being blind to his ability.

“I just wasn’t taking any wickets,’’ Anlezark explains. “I wasn’t performing. I wasn’t bowling as well as I should have. I didn’t feel I deserved to play any more games in the ones than I did. I think it was a confidence thing too, because I wasn’t doing anything really.

“I didn’t really have a great Under 19s nationals. My speeds were down. I felt I had no control over the ball.’’

Then came that match against NSW at the Junction.

His bowling, he says, “all came together’’.

“The first over, I bowled a ball that was almost five wides down the leg side and the next ball was almost a wide on the off-side. I was thinking it was going to be a long day.’’

It was – but for NSW.

James Miller on Austin Anlezark

“You’ve got to be patient with young talent at the best of times. When add in an injury concern, then you need extra patience. While Austin’s an amazing talent, we’re in no hurry or rush to see it. There’s no pressure on him to come out and perform and make waves at the next level immediately. It’s going to be a little bit more of a slow burn. But will be exciting when he’s up and ready … a fast bowler who can swing the bowler, that’s a fabulous art to have.’’