IT was a ground-breaking 2022-23 season for women’s cricket in Swan Hill.
Participation rose dramatically while the region’s girls’ representative team, the Murray Downs Diamonds, went undefeated in the Wimmera Girls Cricket League.
Building off this momentum, MDD coach Alan Hatcher is pushing for a proper junior girls’ competition in Swan Hill for the first time next season.
On Wednesday nights this summer, Hatcher oversaw the Murray Downs Female Competition, which saw girls play in unrecorded games weekly for fun.
Hatcher told The Guardian he hopes to professionalise the MDFC for the 2023-24 season.
“We’re trying to make it more in line with a normal junior competition you would see in the boys under 16s or 13s,” Hatcher said.
“With the participation we’ve currently got, it’s the right time to be more professional.
“It will be set teams for the whole season, and scores will be collected properly and put into the paper and on MyCricket.”
While teams won’t be affiliated with any clubs, the competition will come under the banner of the Swan Hill District Cricket Association.
Hatcher said this is the first step in building towards a bright future for women’s cricket in the area.
“It’s just about setting the structure in place so one day, if there are enough girls, we could have clubs put forward their own sides,” he said.
