Henty captain Mark White believes the Swampies are already seeing the benefits of the merger between the Holbrook and Brocklesby and District associations.
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White said the amalgamation had been instrumental in Shannon Terlich, Greg Schuller and Paddy Murray returning to the club.
Murray has spent the past five seasons with CAW provincial clubs Albury and North Albury and will play his first match for the Swampies on Saturday since their surprise 2012-13 grand final victory against Culcairn.
“This weekend some of the sides from different associations will play each other for the first time and you don’t really know what to expect,” White said.
“I think the stronger and weaker sides in each competition will match up pretty well.
“We’ve picked up a few players because of the merger in Greg and Shannon.
“Footy is a massive commitment for them and I get that but they haven’t shown an interest in cricket for a while and then suddenly they want to come back again.
“It’s really good to get them and Paddy playing again.”
Murray is excited to be returning to the new CAW Hume competition with the bowler looking forward to Saturday’s clash with Walla at Henty.
“It will be good to get back,” he said.
“It’s been five seasons.
“Footy takes up a fair bit of time (Wodonga Raiders) so it will be a bit easier with the cricket at Henty.”
Although Henty will be without Terlich this weekend, the Swampies underlined their talent by defeating TRYC last weekend and they should hold off Walla’s Tom Simmons, Mark Taylor and Joel Merkel.
Rand and Holbrook will be playing for flag favouritism when they clash at Rand.
The reigning BDCA premier started with a win over Walla while the Brookers crushed last year’s HDCA premier Osborne.
Both teams have plenty of depth with opening Brooker bowlers Hamish Mackinlay and Cooper Walsh set to have a big say on the outcome.
Culcairn and TRYC should turn on another tight clash at Culcairn.
The Lions will rely heavily on Steve Brand and Vince Chaffey to score heavily while TRYC’s Todd Hannam will look to hit back after a rare failure last weekend.
Surprise-packet Walbundrie will start favourites against Lockhart.
The Tigers have topped up their stocks nicely over the past fortnight with Nick Morris, Blake Lieschke, Alex McMaster and Nick Molkentin striking early form.
Led by the Perryman brothers, Osborne should have the answers against a young Burrumbuttock side at Osborne.
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