WITH the Portland and Hamilton District Cricket Association amalgamation given the green light in the past month, there’s been plenty of discussion around how each Portland club, along with the association as a whole, will be affected by the change.
The Portland Observer contacted each local club to get their views on the upcoming season.

Tyrendarra
The PDCA three-time reigning premiers Tyrendarra have expressed their support for making the move, with incumbent captain Cam Mather saying it was a decision which had to be made “sooner or later.”
“It’s a move that was going to happen, it was just a case of how soon it would be,” Mather said.
“I think people around the club are pretty excited about the change, a lot of the boys are really keen to get stuck in.”
Mather said that while Tyrendarra’s location made it a challenge to recruit outside players, he said he expected the move would help them to keep some of their top-level talent.
“It’s hard for us to recruit players, but I think the opportunity to play on new grounds against some different opposition will help us to retain the core group that we already have,” he said.
With the Darras being the most successful PDCA club in recent years, one would expect them to be prime candidates to push for more success in a new and likely more demanding competition.
But while Mather said he concurred with this assessment; he added that the move would hopefully also provide impetus for his club to make further improvements when it comes to their work during the season.
“I think we’ll be competitive, but it will also push us to play at a higher standard,” he said.
“I think at times our training regime has been lackadaisical, coming in to this competition we know that we’re not going to be able to simply wait to play our best cricket at the right time, it’s going to have to be a season-long commitment.”
As for whether the move opens the door for the club to get involved in the junior competition (Tyrendarra currently does not have a junior side), Mather said the conversations within the club were ongoing but that prior efforts had proved largely fruitless.
“We’ve had meetings between ourselves and with the league where this issue was touched on… ultimately we don’t get much support from Cricket Victoria when it comes to promoting juniors,” Mather said.
“We’ve approached both Narrawong and Bolwarra primary schools about enticing kids that way… there’s just so many sports on offer with basketball, footy etc that it’s tough to find room for cricket for many of them.”