West Gambier
The reigning premiers West Gambier will be looking to build on the success they had from last season as they head into their 2024/25 Zema Estate Barber Shield campaign.
Roos captain Bray Stephenson said the side was very similar to last season with only the departure of Bailey Rothall.
West is also bringing in two new players to the squad, with Trent Badman returning to the side after a foot injury saw him miss last season and young leg spinner Sam Hunt who joins the side from Millicent.
Stephenson believes his side will be up around the top of the comp again – and his main focus heading into the season is to continue on what his side built last year and to keep playing the same brand of cricket that was so successful last season.
Stephenson believes the depth that his side has with the bat and ball is a big strength for them and they did not have to rely on any one particular player.
“We will back our depth again with the bat and ball and play the same brand of cricket we were playing last year which is that tough old-school two-day cricket,” Stephenson said.
“We do not rely on one or two players, we know we bat right down to 11 and we have got bowlers who do not get a bowl a lot of the time because we have got so much depth there.”
With a stable team on the oval, West Gambier will definitely be the one to beat this year and are top favourites to win it all.
Mil Lel
After a solid season last year Mil Lel will be looking to improve on their previous season performance in the 2024/25 season.
Captain Jack Miller said his side has recruited well in the off-season with some new faces in the squad.
The side has looked to their juniors to step up with several of their juniors playing full time senior cricket, which Miller thinks will be good for the side with them now able to focus on the one team.
Other than the juniors some of the new players to the side are Hayden Massey along with returning players Boyd Millhouse and Brodie Glynn who have rejoined the team after time off.
Miller believes his side will have another good season but is still unsure what the starting 11 looks like.
Miller is hoping to get a couple wins before the Christmas break because he knows how important it is to get off to a good start early on and to take that momentum into the back end of the season.
An area of improvement Miller would like the side to have going into the season is to not fall in numbers after having a collapse.
“We were 100% great early on but if we’d have a collapse we would fall in numbers, so this year if we have a collapse we will rebuild or restart and not just fall to our feet and then lose it from there,” he said.
Miller believes youngster Harry Hicks is in for a great season for Mil Lel as well as another young player in Toby Grigg who will be playing his first full season of senior cricket.
Miller will also be looking for Massey to have a good season with the bat.
Overall Miller is hoping for his side to play an all round team performance week in and week out with not too many passengers and everyone pulling their weight.
East Gambier
East Gambier will be looking to continue the success they had last season as the Doggies begin their 2024/25 campaign.
Doggies captain Alex Hentschke thinks his side is looking good so far and is similar to last year’s team, however believes there is still work to be done as they have had a bit of an interrupted preseason due to the poor Mount Gambier weather.
The Doggies have only lost one player in Aiden Creasey who is out with an injury, however there are a couple of juniors stepping up to play seniors.
Hentschke says it’s handy for them to have the junior players come up and hopes to develop them into top quality players.
Hentschke believes that this is a side that will be pushing to make finals this season.
“Ultimately you want to be within contention with the team and the list that we have got and we should be around the mark again,” he said.
“We have been playing finals for the past four or five years so it will be nice to be back in the mix.”
A main area of improvement Hentschke will be looking to make a change in will be their batting.
“It’s been an issue the last few years, we have just not been able to put scores on the board,” he said.
“I think our bowling stacks up against anyone, it was something that we addressed last year that our batting sort of let us down more often than not so hopefully when the big games come up we can show up with that.”
Heading into the season Hentschke believes Emerson Marks will be one to watch after a down year for his standards and says he will be fit and ready to go after a good footy season.
He also believes a couple of East’s young players will step up this year and help contribute to the team, highlighting Evan Clark and Rajat Pandey while Connor Little will be one Hentschke thinks will continue to improve after a solid season last year.
Overall the Doggies will once again be a fairly competitive side this season and will pushing to make a deep run in the finals.
Penola
Penola will be looking to improve on their performance from last season and intending to make the finals in the 2024/25 season.
Captain Michael Waters believes his side is in a good position right now and is looking a lot better than they did this time last year with better availability from players as well as some new faces to the side.
Penola will have a similar side to last season with the additions of Brenton Smart from Naracoorte as well as some youngsters coming up from the junior ranks including Zac Zema and Eli Hunter, and Waters is excited for them to be a part of the side.
Waters said he is reasonably optimistic about the season and thinks there will be a fair bit of improvement in the side from last year where they only picked up just one win and is hopeful the side can crack into the top four.
Waters believes the main area of improvement for this season will be the side’s batting consistency.
“I think we had a fair few of collapses last year after some reasonable starts which makes things hard, so just a bit more consistency with some blokes and a bit more application with the bat,” he said.
“But I think generally bowling and fielding was quite strong but hopefully we can get a few more runs on the board.”
Waters believes that Jack Mullan will be in for a pretty good year and is hungry for the season to start along with Drew Clayfield who missed a majority of last season with injury and will also be keen to get back out there and have a big year.
Overall there are a lot of positive signs for Penola and after a disappointing season last year the only way for them is up.
North Sportsmans
Coming off a competitive year last season North Sportsmans will be hungry to get back out there and fight for the premiership after the unfortunate way last season ended for the Tigers.
Captain Mitch Lewis said there is a strong commitment from the squad with pretty much no charges to the side with not much recruiting necessary in the off season.
Lewis believes the team will compete similarly to what they did last season due to the side being unchanged with finals being an expectation for the side this season.
Lewis said consistency will be a main focus of improvement going into the season.
“Last year we started really well then sort of faltered in the middle before getting really hot again so finding form in the right spots would be key,” he said.
“We sort of let ourselves down in the middle sections of the year but we propped ourselves up with a good start and a good finish.”
Lewis thinks Elliot Fisher will be in store for another great year after having a big season last year as well as Nick McInerney.
Lewis hopes that Declan Kenney can have a good season this year if he can stay fit and healthy.
“If we can get a season out of him injury free because he is exceptionally talented so with a clean run he will be very handy for us,” Lewis said.
Overall the Tigers will be looking to continue the momentum they had from the back end of last season and will definitely be a top team given their talented squad and will be hungry to get a real shot at the premiership after how last season ended.
South Gambier
South Gambier will be looking to improve on a disappointing 2023/24 season with a freshened up squad featuring plenty of youth.
Dees captain Elwood Geary said the team is looking good so far but it is still hard to tell with the limited training they have had due to bad weather.
So far South has not recruited any new players yet but are still looking to bring in some new faces.
They have got plenty of youngsters coming up from the junior ranks to play senior cricket full time.
The Dees have only lost one player this season in Stephen Easterbrook.
After a poor season last year Geary said the side can only build from there and thinks his side is strong enough to get some more wins under their belt.
“Compared to last season where we only won one game so we can only build from what happened last year, but we have got a decent enough team and enough power to win some more games,” he said.
Geary thinks a big area of improvement for the team this season will be their batting.
“Our batting is sort of what let us down not just last year but over the last few years, keeping batters in and being able to make runs has been a big problem so we will be working on that,” he said.
Geary thinks that Robbie Drenthen and Noah Maxwell are going to be standout players for the Dees this season.
“Robbie’s an older bloke but still finds ways to get wickets and makes runs every year, he is probably the main one for us,” he said.
“Noah Maxwell, who has come up from under 17s, he will be our wicket keeper for the year and a pretty important batter for our team.”
With a good mix of talent, youth and experience the Dees will definitely be a side intent on a big improvement from last season and may even be a dark horse team to get into the top four and make finals.