Gades shock at coach cull as Molineux looks to horizons

Allrounder Sophie Molineux has revealed the shock that swept through the Melbourne Renegades playing group when the axe fell on coach Tim Coyle earlier this month.

Coyle fell victim to sweeping changes at Cricket Victoria in early May as the organisation went through a major restructure that saw a raft of redundancies, particularly in community cricket.

Coyle had steered the 'Gades to semi-finals appearances in the past two Rebel WBBL seasons in his three years in charge.

"There's a lot going in, not just in sport, but it definitely hit home when we saw Coyley go," said Molineux today.

"The last couple of years at the Renegades he's done a massive amount of work to get us into position to play in semi-finals and be really close to the grand finals.

"We'll always be thankful for what he's done.

"The group has definitely got some really sad emotions about him not being able to come back."

Cricket Victoria's General Manger of Cricket Shaun Graf said the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic had led to Coyle's exit.

"The challenges delivered by the current climate have forced us to reassess every area of our High Performance program and unfortunately this has led to the end of Tim's tenure with the Renegades," said Graf earlier this month.

Coyle was signed by the Renegades ahead of the WBBL|03 season, and the club saw Georgia Wareham and Molly Strano join Molineux in playing roles in Australia's T20 World Cup win earlier this year.

The exit of Coyle has left both the Renegades and Stars WBBL clubs without a head coach after Leah Poulton quit her post after less than a month in the role to return to Cricket NSW.

Molineux said the players hoped to learn more about CV's plans once they return to Junction Oval for training over the next few weeks and has joined the chorus calling for Cricket Australia to resist any scaling back the WBBL competition this season.

"Being involved in the WBBL over the past five years, to see how far that has come, we'd be pretty silly to take a step back from that and stop the momentum," Molineux said.

"I'm sure that won't happen. It's had a massive impact on the Australian team and being able to perform at World Cups over the past couple of years and the success the team has had on the international stage has definitely come from our domestic set-up.

"If you cut games people aren't going to get game experience and improve and develop and you want to be out there in the thick of it.

"I have every confidence in the people that are making those decisions that they'll keep women's cricket's best interests at heart."

Molineux said the "sky was the limit" for the women's game after 86,000 people attended the T20 World Cup final at the MCG.

"I never thought I'd play in front of nearly 90,000 at the MCG, but that was not just off the back of the last few years of building up to that, it was the result of years and years and teams of past cricketers and women that have paved the way for a moment like that to happen.

"The potential of a day like that to kick things on even more is a really exciting thought.

"There's so much scope in women's cricket in Australia. It's a really cool feeling to be involved at the moment."

Molineux was included in the 15 names for Australia's national contracts for the 2020-21 season, with national selector Shawn Flegler indicating they were eyeing increased output with the bat from the left-arm spinner.

"I haven't thought about that too much but at the same time I'm happy to play any role in any team," Molineux said.

"It's a cliché but I really don't mind. I just want to keep getting better and maybe opportunities could arise with the bat at Australian level.

"But if not hopefully we've got a set-up that's going to let us keep winning. Whatever happens, happens, I'm just going to put my best foot forward and see where that goes."