Buttler capped off a massive 2019-20 season in the Seymour District Cricket Association’s A-grade competition, named Kilmore’s player of the year, as well as picking up the club’s A-grade all-rounder and bowling awards.
He was also included in the league-wide SDCA team of the year.
Buttler, 22, takes over from Matt Rose, who has coached the team on-and-off for the past decade.
After putting his hand up for the top job throughout the application process, Buttler, who has risen up the ranks at Kilmore since joining as a junior, said he felt now was the right time to take on the role.
“I’ve always had an interest in being a leader, I think I thrive on it,” Buttler said.
“I’ve had a little bit of experience as captain in my junior years, and I think I’m ready now to take on that role.”
“I think it will go hand-in-hand with my own performance.
“It has been a life goal to be captain-coach of Kilmore.”
Kilmore finished fourth last summer, sitting in the middle of the pack alongside Broadford.
Buttler said he was excited to get stuck into next season and was hopeful of on-field success.
“I’m excited to get back into cricket and some normality,” he said.
“We’ll have a red hot crack and hopefully have some success.”
With Tallarook and Yea dominating A-grade in recent years, Buttler was confident Kilmore could take any team when cricket returned.
“I think it was a pretty even competition last season. Our best was good enough to compete with Yea and Tallarook,” he said.
“We won some late and gave Tallarook a scare at one point.
“If we can find that consistency, we ought to be in the mix.”
Buttler is confident the bulk of Kilmore’s list will be back on the field next season.
“I feel like we have a good enough side and we’re always looking for handy pick-ups and additional players,” he said.
“We’ve got a good spread of players. The last few years, we’ve had one of the older lists, but we do have some good young kids coming up and pushing for spots, which makes for healthy competition.”
● New players interested in joining Kilmore Cricket Club next season can head to its Facebook page at www.facebook.com/KilmoreCricketClub