St Mary’s-Tyntynder v Woorinen
St Mary’s-Tyntynder and Woorinen should kick off season 2022-23 in style when they meet at the Ken Harrison Reserve on Saturday – with both clubs out for redemption after disappointing finishes to last season.
While last year may not have gone to plan, both the Saints and Tigers will be among the teams to beat once again this season, with only minor personnel changes to either side.
The biggest loss will be felt by the Tigers after losing leading run scorer and last year’s league best and fairest Marcus Mangiameli in the off-season – however with some natural improvement from talented youngster Mitch Uhlhorn, along with the inclusion of Glenn Violi from injury, Woorinen will be hoping they can more than cover Mangiameli’s absence.
St Mary’s-Tyntynder will have some challenges of their own to start the season, with an expectation that Corey Daniels may not bowl for the first half of the season due to injury.
If Daniels is unable to take his place at the top of the bowling order, that will certainly detract from the Saints’ ability to take all 10 opposition wickets and means new captain Nathaniel Holmes-Brown will have to find an extra eight overs from somewhere.
When looking through the possible line-up for St Mary’s, that shouldn’t be a problem, as they Saints are certainly blessed with plenty of strong bowling options – including Holmes-Brown himself, Charlie King, Dom Violi, Austin McKerrow, Jack Shannahan and Bailey Talbot.
The potential tiebreaker between the two teams could well come down to who scores the quickest – and with that it’s a major advantage to the Saints, who have long been a team who like to score at a rapid rate.
If St Mary’s-Tyntynder are able to win the toss, bat first and put a big score on the board, that should go a long way.
Nyah District v Swan Hill
Swan Hill will face their biggest test in climbing the ladder first up when they travel to Nyah to play reigning premiers Nyah District on Saturday afternoon.
After going through last season without a win in both the 40 and 50 over formats of the game, the Swans will be looking for big improvements.
And improve they should, adding top order batsman Nathan Spicer to their squad and bowlers Harjeet Virk and Sumit Kumar.
Virk and Kumar will add much needed depth with the ball, with Swan Hill often guilty of allowing too many extras and loose deliveries last season – and should perfectly complement Cal Noonan, Andrew Clark and Sebastian Linssen.
On the other hand, Nyah District’s big strength has long been the bowling – although one big piece of that strength will be missing on Saturday, with captain Ben Shadbolt unavailable through injury, although the Demons should have more than enough talent with the ball to cover his absence with Charlie Boulton, Drew Lloyd and Cooper Andrews all another year older and mature.
The big watch however will be on Joel Walsh’s return for the reigning premiers, the former skipper missing last season after heading overseas.
Walsh’s return will give the Demons a massive boost in their efforts to go back-to-back, with the all-rounder a constant threat with both bat and ball.
While anything can be expected in what is essentially the opening round, the focus for Swan Hill really should be on improving with the bat and making sure they post a score that is both competitive and defendable against one of the best bowling attacks.
Ultima-TUF v RSL
Rounding out the weekend, Ultima-TUF host RSL at the Alan Garden Reserve, with both clubs desperate to get off to a winning start after missing the finals last season.
Ben Hallam will take reins at RSL this season, while Kade Benfield will continue to lead the improving Roodogs in his second season at the helm, with both clubs going into the new season with much the same teams as last year.
Both RSL and Ultima-TUF’s big strengths are with the bat and it’s likely to be the team who hits the ground running gets the result.
Ryan Hinton is still one of the best batsmen in the league, while Brenton Caldwell and Stuart Patterson are also capable of producing a match winning innings.
The unknown in the Blues batting order lies with their skipper Hallam and how he handles the extra responsibility of leadership, as well as leading the way at the top of the order.
It’s a similar story for the home side, who tend to rely heavily on their more experienced cricketers with the bat.
Ben Shepherd – like Patterson – can tear a game away from any opposition in the space of a dynamic 10 over burst, with the Caldwell brothers likely to have him firmly in their cross hairs, along with Mitch Seton-Stewart, Kyle Symons and Benfield.
In what should be an exceptionally close game to start the season – and with very little separating either side – it could well come down to the toss of the coin and who gets first use of the conditions as to who claims bragging rights come 6pm Saturday night.
