Dougie Brown admits his first year in charge at Warwickshire was a 鈥渟teep learning curve鈥.
Twelve months ago, Brown succeeded Ashley Giles as the Bears鈥 director of cricket 鈥 his first senior coaching role in county cricket.
He took over the county champions from a man who had just stepped up into the England camp. They were big shoes to fill.
Plenty in his in-tray already, Brown was then hampered all summer long by a quite bizarre succession of injuries around his squad with numerous senior players ruled out for the medium and long terms.
With England鈥檚 selectors also constantly gnawing away at the team, the chances of Warwickshire successfully defending their title waned then disappeared. In the circumstances, it was an impressive effort to finish fourth.
The less said about limited-overs cricket the better. The T20 brought another failure to escape the group while the 40-over campaign started badly and deteriorated. Much better will be expected of Brown鈥檚 team next season.
But, a year into the job, Brown is comfortable with the challenges ahead 鈥 and happy that his team is on the right track to deliver.
鈥淟ast season we all learned a lot 鈥 the players, the coaches and myself particularly,鈥 he said.
鈥淚 learned an awful lot. Even though I had been around the squad in a coaching capacity for five or six years, there were things that surprised me.
鈥淵ou know an environment so well that you think you know what it鈥檚 going to be like in charge, but it was different in some respects.
鈥樷業t is a very full-on job, very all-consuming, but that鈥檚 no problem because that鈥檚 how I work anyway. Twelve months on I have got a pretty good handle on things.
鈥淚t was a steep learning curve, especially with all the curve balls we had to deal with last summer with one injury after another.
鈥樷業t was a tough summer in a lot of ways because we always seemed to be fixing things but we learned a lot and actually still acquitted ourselves very well in the championship.
鈥淚t was pleasing to finish fourth. It wasn鈥檛 where we wanted to finish when we set out, of course, but to stay competitive in the circumstances was a great effort from the players. In fact, we got pretty close to successfully defending the title and if one or two little things had just gone our way we would have been even closer.
鈥淏ut the injuries kept coming and that had a knock-on effect on our one-day cricket.
鈥樷楾owards the end we had players injured and were still challenging in the championship so had to concentrate our resources on that.
鈥淭o me, if you don鈥檛 qualify in one-day cricket it doesn鈥檛 matter whether you finish third or sixth.
鈥樷楢nd we will benefit from the younger guys having played in those games because they tested themselves in first-team cricket.
鈥樷楴ext season they will be better for having that experience under their belts.鈥
Warwickshire have, man for man, one of the strongest squads in county cricket and, given a reasonably clear run from injuries and international calls, they should be up there challenging for trophies.
Brown is happy with both the personnel at his disposal and the way they have shaped up in training during the winter.
But he is keen to keep a lid on expectations this year having found out in 2013 just how many slings and arrows can arrive to interfere with planning.
鈥淧erhaps we went into last season with expectations a little bit too high,鈥 he said.
鈥淩ight now we are in a really good place. The guys have worked very hard and the injury situation has eased.
鈥淥f course, we can鈥檛 really know how the guys are until we get outdoors and get all our first-team players back and that won鈥檛 be until we play at Oxford and then when the season starts. But I am very happy with the way they look at the moment.
鈥淒uring the winter they have worked hard and also worked smart.
鈥樷榃e have worked really hard on specific areas, including our one-day skills, and I expect that to pay dividends next season.鈥
