At long last, the turf is being rolled out, the pads are about to be strapped on, and the 2025/26 Wangaratta and District Cricket Association season is all but here.

The first ball of the summer gets sent down this Saturday for the A grade and A reserve competitions around the North East, with local squad Ovens Valley United set to host Beechworth in the top flight.

It’s been a productive off-season for the Tigers, with the signings of Englishmen Joe Monk and Joel Jordan sure to bolster the bowling stocks in A grade.

The squad has been in preseason mode since late August, and have squeezed in a pair of practice matches ahead of the season, most recently against CAW District side Bethanga on the weekend.

New A grade captain Seamus Phillips said the preparation was improved compared to previous years, and they were eager to crack into the season.

“It’s all coming up pretty quickly, but we feel like we’re ahead of the ball,” he said.

“We lost Bailey Wyatt, he’s playing at Tallangatta, Cooper Thomason isn’t playing cricket this year - we knew pretty early they weren’t going to play this year, so we were pretty light on in the bowling attack, and we had an aging bowling attack last year, so we wanted to freshen that up with some overseas players.

“We’ve got a couple of ins, we’ve got Joe [Monk] and Joel [Jordan], the two Poms coming in.

“The batting line-up is pretty solid still, with myself, Dyl [Bursill] and Geeth [Alwis] all batting in the top four this year, and we’ve got the youngsters to chip in around us and make runs.

“Both Poms can hold bats, I wouldn’t rule them out of making a few scores this year either, they both look pretty solid with the stick.”

Phillips said the A grade list would also prominently feature some up and coming talent fresh from the junior programs.

“A couple of the under 16s from last year are going to step up and play most of A grade this year, so that’ll be good,” he said.

“Noah White will play all year in A grade basically, and Ben McMasters will be playing most of A grade this year.

“We’re still in talks with a couple of blokes to come over and play – that won’t happen this week, maybe around round three because we have a bye in round two, so we might see some different faces.”

The Tigers will face a challenge to open their A grade season, taking on the resolute and consistent Beechworth at home, while the reserves head across to Yarrawonga to take on the Lakers.

While the goal in the short term is to put runs on the board and take wickets, Phillips said the goal was to establish consistent momentum throughout the year.

“This weekend, we’d like to start with a win and try and build a bit of momentum – with having a bye in round two, you don’t want to be going into round three with some teams having two wins on the board and we don’t even have one,” he said.

“Hopefully we can get the win and try and build a bit of momentum through the season.

“Last year, we didn’t win two in a row, so that’s going to be a big factor this year and try and string together two, three, four wins on the bounce and not just go win-loss-win-loss this year.

“Our main goal for the season is to play finals, we didn’t play finals last year and with the squad we’ve got, not making the top four would probably be a failure.”

The 2025/26 WDCA season kicks off from 12.30pm for the A grade squad at McNamara Reserve, and 1pm for the A reserves at Stan Hargreaves Oval, Yarrawonga.