RSL will be looking to start their 2023-24 SHDCA season off with a win when they host Murrabit for the first time at Gurnett Oval this weekend.
While it will be RSL’s first match for the season on Saturday, having enjoyed the bye in the opening round, it will be Murrabit’s second, with the SHDCA’s newest team looking to bounce back from their first up defeat to Woorinen.
It was Woorinen’s batting line-up that did most of the damage to Murrabit last Saturday, with Darren Rushton scoring a century and Jason Mangiameli smashing an unbeaten 67.
But while Murrabit will need a vastly improved performance with the ball on Saturday against a similarly deep and aggressive batting team in RSL, their captain Blake Watts is confident that his team’s best will have them in the game.
“It was definitely an eye opener and it was good to see where the competition’s at and to see what level we have to bring ourselves and our club up to,” Watts told The Guardian this week.
“We feel we’re not that far off and obviously Darren (Rushton) batted extremely well last week and there’s not much you can do about that sometimes.
“We’ve got a good young side and we’ve still got a couple to come back in.
“Once we’re full strength and we’ve got a few games under our belts, I think we’ll be more than competitive.”
Having sat back and watched the eight remaining SHDCA teams start their season last Saturday, RSL will be desperate to start their season off in much better fashion than last year, when they failed to win any of their first 10 games of the season.
But while the shorter format hurt them with a young side last season, returning captain Ben Hallam is confident that his team has learnt their lessons from 12 months ago.
“We won’t be easing into it, we’ll be trying to win obviously, but playing a 40-over one-day game first up instead of a T20 game will certainly benefit us,” Hallam said.
“It will just give our guys a bit of extra time to ease into their first game with both the bat and ball and means you can spend a bit of time at the crease instead of going for it straight away.
“I think it is a real positive for us especially to be starting off with a more traditional style of cricket.
“It’s also pretty exciting to be coming up against a club and team that none of us have played against before.
“It’s a long cold winter sometimes and it will be nice to get back out there and get back into it.”
With veterans Ryan Hinton, Stuart Patterson and the Caldwell brothers all returning again, RSL are sure to be competitive.
But while the output of their veterans is well known, it’s the inclusion of opening bowler Lleyton Purcell and hard-hitting batsman Josh Ephraums that will have most pundits watching with interest.
As will the performance of Murrabit, with the jury is still out on whether the competition’s newest Blues outfit will be able to match it with their namesakes.
“It was hard having a few new players coming into the team and having only seen them in action at training prior to last Saturday,” Watts said.
“We’ll be a bit better prepared within ourselves tomorrow just in regards to knowing what everyone is capable of, but we go into tomorrow’s game positive and knowing that we’ll be better for the run.”
