Cricket Australia hires physical performance manager

Cricket Australia has moved to revamp its strength and conditioning structure by appointing Andrew Weller to the newly created position of physical performance manager. Weller, 48, has spent the past decade working with AFL clubs and has been the high performance manager at the Gold Coast Suns for the past four years.

In his new role he will oversee the strength and conditioning programmes across all Australian teams, which will mean working closely with the state associations as well as the national squads. A physical performance coach, who will be responsible for the Australia team when on tour and during their home summer, will be appointed in the coming weeks and will report to Weller.

"Andrew has been at the Gold Coast Suns from the beginning and was instrumental in creating their strength and conditioning programme," Pat Howard, Cricket Australia's general manager, team performance, said. "Previous to this he was the rehabilitation manager at the St Kilda Football Club.

"Andrew will be responsible for all strength and conditioning programs across all of the Australian teams, both male and female. He will be a key liaison person between these national programs and their home state programs. Andrew will implement a consistent long term delivery across all of Australian cricket working with the states, the youngest elite players all the way to the national teams."

Weller said: "I'm really looking forward to the challenge of working with Cricket Australia, its high performance squads and the sports science teams within the states. Over the last decade I've worked in AFL and I'm sure I can bring innovations from that sport to cricket as we continue to develop the high performance culture around the Australian cricket teams."

Keeping Australia's young players - especially the fast bowlers - fit and firing will be one of the key challenges of the new physical performance manager and coach.