Cricket
16 October, 2025
HCA season ready to hit off
The Horsham Cricket Association senior season commences this Saturday, with the new-look competition set to ignite one of the association’s most exciting seasons yet.
The Horsham Cricket Association senior season commences this Saturday, with the new-look competition set to ignite one of the association’s most exciting seasons yet.
Having welcomed Brim Kellalac Sheep Hills Cricket Club into the association last season, five new clubs will be introduced into the 2025-26 season: Donald Jeffcott, Swifts-Great Western, St Mary’s, Halls Gap and Rhymney Moyston.
The influx of new clubs means A and B grades will consist of 10 teams each, while 11 teams form the C grade competition.
A grade will welcome teams from Donald Jeffcott, Swifts-Great Western, Warracknabeal-based St Mary’s, with the rest of the grade consisting of Brim KSH, Noradjuha Toolondo Bullants, Colts, Laharum, Lubeck Murtoa, Horsham Tigers and West Wimmera.
Horsham Saints will not field an A grade side this season after doing so in the 2024-25 season.
In a surprising turn of events, Homers, the 2024-25 two-day premiers, will not field an A grade side this season, leaving the premiership race wide open.
One team looking to contend for the premiership will be the Bullants, who were defeated by Homers in last year’s grand final.
Tony Caccaviello, captain of the Bullants A grade side, acknowledged a premiership is the ultimate aspiration, but knows the addition of new teams will provide a greater challenge.
“The competition has expanded with a few new teams this year, so we’d love to be in that final four,” Caccaviello said.
“That’s our aspiration, and it will require us to start the season probably a bit stronger than we have historically.
“The last two or three years, we’ve started the season a bit sluggish, so we’ll be looking to come out of the gates pretty hot and collect a lot of those points early in the year.”
Helping the Bullants is the fact that they’ve retained most of last year’s players, with Caccaviello also expecting some of the junior players to progress.
“We’ve got a pretty stable list, and we’re fielding and A grade and B grade teams, both of whom were pretty successful last year,” Caccaviello said.
“We've got a pretty strong junior program, and I guess our improvement will come from just another year of seeing some of our juniors continue to develop.”
Bullants' captain identified Jack Combe and Riley Lane as young players to watch for the upcoming season.
“Jack Combe, one of our younger players, is coming along nicely,” Caccaviello said.
“He'll play a big role with us with the bat, and he also bowls handy medium pace and is a jet in the field.
“Riley Lane is a fast bowler that's put in a heap of work over the off season and it'll be great to see how he goes this year.”
Last year’s one-day premiers, West Wimmera, are another side in premiership contention after going down in last year’s two-day semifinals.
West Wimmera A grade captain Nathan Alexander said his team, largely unchanged from last season, have their eyes firmly set on the two-day premiership.
“We have a pretty similar team to last year, not too many changes, so hopefully that should put us in good stead,” Alexander said.
“The one-day flag is nice, but the two-dayers are the ones we really want.
“We didn’t quite make the grand final last year, so it’s one that’s been eating away at us a bit.”
Asked if there were any players to keep an eye on, Alexander said he expects young gun Jobe Dickinson to make a mark in the top grade.
“I reckon Jobe Dickinson will take a bit of a step this year and make a fair few runs up the order for us.”
Amongst the new sides, Swifts-Great Western enters A grade having taken out last two Grampians Cricket Association premierships.
Marc Brilliant, president of Swifts-Great Western, says entering the HCA has created a buzz amongst the club, as evidenced by the influx of players.
“We’re really keen to get going,” Brilliant said.
“We’ve got three senior teams this year and there’s a lot buzz in the air at the minute.
“Preseason officially launched mid-September, so our numbers have been growing and growing, and we’ve had upwards of 30 last week.
Brilliant said the club retained all of its players from last year, while also managing to recruit new and former players.
“We've managed to retain everyone from last year, plus we've obviously bought an influx of players across all grades, which is good,” Brilliant said.
“We recruited young Max McMahon from Halls Gap, who won several of the Grampians awards last year.
“He's a star, and he was one of our first signings, so he'll open the batting."
Premiership captain Aiden Graveson will return to the helm this season, on the back his maiden top grade century.
“Another one we have managed to retain is Zach Marrow, who is going to play in Ballarat next year, but we managed to retain him for this season.
“He's a top-order left-hand batsman and we've managed to get his brother back too, who's a top-order bat as well."
Asked about A grade’s expectations for the season, Brilliant is optimistic, but acknowledges that a new competition with new opposition presents many unknowns.
“To be competitive is probably step one,” Brilliant said.
“It's all new, so we don't know what we're sort of rolling into.
“It's all new grounds, all new teams, and when you’ve played in a competition that you've played in all the time, you know the players, you know where to put fieldsman, all that sort of stuff, but it’s exciting.”
As well as contending with the new teams, the Horsham Tigers will also be managing a new-look squad.
Ash Wright, president of Horsham Tigers, says a number of juniors will get a chance at the top level, with numerous players departing the club or unavailable.
“Angus Adams, who took out the batting awards last season, has gone to play in Melbourne, so that’s a bit of a loss,” Wright said.
“We've also lost a couple to injuries.
“A grade will still have guys like Marty Knight and David Puls, who are stalwarts of the club, while Tyler Puls will captain the side again.
“We’ve got Cody Stewart, Andy Brown, and Callum Jackson coming up from the 16s, who will probably get some opportunities in A grade.
“So we're going to be quite a young side, so we're not expecting to be worldbeaters, but we thought it’s good for some of the young blokes to play the highest level that they can, get experience against the better players.
A grade will consist of 13 rounds of nine one-day matches and four two-day fixtures, with the first six rounds being one-dayers.
Round one kicks off with an exciting clash between the Tigers and Lubeck Murtoa at Dimboola Road Oval.
Elsewhere, Donald Jeffcott will journey to Laharum. Brim KSH are set to host Swifts GW in Brim, while Colts and West Wimmera will battle it out at Dudley Cornell Park.
Finally, Anzac Park in Warracknabeal will be the venue for St Mary's and Bullants as they compete for premiership points.
All matches are scheduled to begin at 1pm.
The 10-team B grade one-day competition will comprise teams from BKSH, the Bullants, Colts, Donald Jeffcoat, Horsham Saints, Rupanyup-Minyip Panthers, Swifts-Greater Western, St Mary’s, Horsham Tigers and West Wimmera.
The one-day C grade competition consists of 11 teams, including Homers, Horsham Saints, Laharum, Lubeck Murtoa, Natimuk, Quantong, Swifts-Great Western, Horsham Tigers, with new clubs Halls Gap and Rhymney-Moyston joining, while Blackheath Dimboola will rejoin the competition after not fielding a senior side in 2024-25.
