Sport
Stars aplenty named as Goulburn Murray and Cricket Shepparton women’s sides get set for battle
Friday night will mark a milestone occasion in the Goulburn Murray Cricket’s women’s competition as its districts collide in an exhibition game.
A composite side representing the best that Goulburn Murray Cricket’s native sides have to offer will travel to Mooroopna Recreation Reserve to face a team comprised of the Cricket Shepparton clubs’ top talents in the first of a two-game series.
Whether this technically counts as interleague — given their different regional affiliations — or intra-league on account of playing in the same competition remains a mystery.
More importantly than that, though, it’s a new frontier for the league’s premier performers to put their prowess on show in a time where opportunities are rapidly expanding for women and girls in the sport within this area.
Goulburn Murray squad
Delaney Laffy, Isla Laffy, Olivia Davy, Madeline Davy (Moama), Jess Cox, Maisy Byrne, Gillian Noelker, Chloe Moyle, Kate Carlile, Sophie Good, Grace Riddell (Echuca), Bree Styles, Amy Fitzgerald, Emily Holgate (Bamawm-Lockington United), Alice Caldow, Cadence Major, Miranda Crawford, Taya Munro, Sarah Taylor, Harriet East, Imogen Kath (Rochester), Cathy Dervish, Sienna Brennan, Sophie McDonald, Breanna Baker (Cooma)
It’s quite a stacked pair of sides as well, just quietly.
Between the two teams, five of the current top six on the league’s Champion Player leaderboard are expected to feature, with only Gemma Boyd of Mooroopna — the clubhouse leader — not listed.
Reigning premier Echuca naturally has the equal-most names on the board in the GMC’s extended squad, with no fewer than seven members of the green machine making the cut, matched by Rochester’s tally with the final team due to be trimmed between now and Friday.
Cricket Shepparton’s 13-woman team, however, looks star-studded at every turn with three of the realm’s four clubs — Mooroopna, Shepparton Youth Club United and Nagambie — sending representatives.
The Lakers’ own Blair Taylor-Lloyd will take on coaching duties for Cricket Shepparton’s side on Friday as well as on the return leg, scheduled for Echuca’s Victoria Park on Friday, January 17.
Cricket Shepparton squad
Sophie Ullah, Phoebe Hawker, Mel Saunders, Dianne Poole, Alex Randell (Shepparton Youth Club United), Bella Woods, Amelia Gall, Amani Issell (Mooroopna), Amber Langham, Sharay Slivarich, Breanna Davison, Kait Carracher, Kayla Shepherd (Nagambie)
Organiser and Nagambie president Ryan Matthews outlined how the friendly match came to be.
“The idea was picked up out of a meeting with the GMC about the women’s comp,” Matthews said.
“We were throwing around ideas around rules and how the season will look and the question came up about a rep game with GMC and Cricket Shepparton.
“We thought we’d like to showcase the best talent from our region to take on them and it went on from there.”