Port Macquarie-based Mathew Broom almost swept up the top prize in SuperCoach BBL|09, but in the end he fell marginally short to Thommo Aitken, settling for the generous runners-up consolation prize of $5,000.

“I can’t complain too much,” Broom laughs. “That’s pretty good money for a free game anyway.”

The 28-year-old self-confessed cricket nut, who has only played SuperCoach BBL for four years, meticulously planned out his team, The Rookies, to expert effect.

After a slow start he flew up the rankings in Round 4 catapulted by maximising double game rounds, hovering around the top 10 from Round 6 on, without ever taking top spot.

But Mathew has finished in the 200s in BBL SC before and has a style worth discussion, so Honeyball had a chat with the SuperCoach BBL|09 runner-up.

HB: Tell us about some of the keys to your success last season?

Mathew: Before Round 1 a lot of people were going cheap benches but I went for a more solid and extensive bench, planning ahead for Round 3 and Round 4 with double game weeks. I tried to target those rounds. That’s probably why my Round 2 score was poor and I dropped down but once I started to have my double game week players I had more than other people and that really helped me get back up into the top 1000 and eventually the top 10.

They weren’t expensive players but they were the ones that I could afford that were playing in the upcoming double game round. I think a stronger bench meant I couldn’t hold more players through their byes so that I could have more players for their double game week.

HB: Let’s talk about key moves?

Mathew: There were a couple of key players. I traded in Chris Morris in Round 2. It was probably not a popular move because he didn’t have any double game rounds. But I had a spare trade so I thought ‘let’s just jump on him’ because he was $125k from memory but had a really SuperCoach friendly role as an all-rounder. From the first round, he was bowling at the death and looked good. I jumped on him and he turned out to be pretty good consistent player each round and a handy back-up captaincy option. I locked him in for the whole season.

Probably my main decision was in Round 13 for the Renegades double. I was tossing Aaron Finch and Beau Webster. I couldn’t really split them. Beau Webster was pretty consistent all year. Aaron Finch was just coming back into the BBL, so I couldn’t really gauge his form. I went with Finch because he’s an opening batsman, he’s class and had a higher ceiling and in the end he exploded that round. He outscored Webster by 234. points! That 50-50 call made my season.

HB: Any moves which didn’t work out?