Game On In The Top End!

The word around town is this year’s Darwin and Districts Cricket Premier Grade campaign will be closer than ever, following a season where four different teams featured in the Two-Day and One-Day finals.

Darwin has a new coach, so does Tracy Village, reigning premiers Southern Districts have lost a couple of big guns as well as last year’s One-Day champions Nightcliff. 

PINT has topped up its list, Palmerston has brought over some stars from across the Tasman and the Waratahs welcome back a Ralph Wiese medallist.  

Unlike last season, the weather looks to be clear of rain for the opening weekend, it is going to be game on in the Top End. 

Round 1 will see Darwin hosting Nightcliff in what is set to be the game of the round to start the 50-over season.

Both sides featured in last year’s grand finals with the Eagles reaching the two-day decider and the Tigers clinching the one-day title. 

Meanwhile, the other two games will feature top four teams from last season playing against bottom three sides.
Waratah (2nd) will head to Palmerston (5th) in what poses to be another intriguing encounter. 

PINT (6th) will travel to Southern Districts (3rd) in a game that the visitors will want to steal a win from with Greens president Simon Lavers saying the club will “target” the one-dayers and T20s. 

New Tracy Village coach Rick Bean will have another week up his sleeve to prepare his troops as the Villagers have the bye. 

At Kahlin Oval, the Eagles will benefit from having the home-ground advantage but the newly-coached Tigers will be eager make an impression. 

Chris Stockdale has brought strong coaching experience from the UK and more recently Perth to Nightcliff Oval, where he takes the realms as coach from Michael Hancock. 

Douwtjie Hoogenboezem (720 runs at 80 last season) will be back at the Tigers in 2024 after a stellar campaign last year where he scored the second most runs in the competition. He has been in the limelight already, scoring a hole-in-one with the golf stick at Gardens Park earlier this month.  

The loss of star fast bowler Caelan Maladay is set to be filled by Hawkesbury quick Zac Honeybrook from Queensland who will also need to help replace Hanno Jacobs. 

The Eagles on the other hand will be charging for glory with new captain Dan Kerber set to take charge with a number of new-young exciting player entering the side. 

With youth, comes hunger and it could be the answer to the “big lift in attitude” which Grey Morris said the Eagles will need in their hunt for a flag this year in his season preview. 

Darren Treumer will be a strong mentor for the Eagles who will benefit greatly from his extensive local knowledge and experience. 

Palmerston-Waratah promises to be a tight contest.

As the Power are set to unleash “a good crop” of exciting youngsters to A-grade level this season, the Palmy side will also show off a new playing kit.

Power president Adrian Gallagher said the kit will be “a maroon and grey setup” for its players including Wellington recruits Matt Scoble (fast bowler) and Caleb Montague (WK-bat). 

The Warriors will welcome the return of opener Ashley Chandrasinghe who scored an unprecedented five centuries in a row in the Top End in 2022 to claim the competition's top individual honour.

But the Victorian cricketer won't come into the fold until the middle of the season and the loss of state players Jason Sangha and Ryan Hackney at Gardens Oval will hurt. 

The leadership of Jagadeswara Koduru, who will take the reigns as captain this season, will strengthen Udara Weerasinghe’s side however, and there is no doubt, they will be pushing towards the top of the table this season.

Southern Districts host PINT in a game you can’t be certain about. 

The Crocodiles will go in as the team to beat as the club goes for a fifth two-day flag in six years. 

Crocs coach Tony Judd will miss Josh Kann, Lochie Hardie and Tom Jackson as they depart from last year’s side but the inclusion of all-rounders Lachlan Bangs and Dean Fry will maintain high hopes. 

The Greens could cause some trouble at Gerry Wood Oval with Queensland spinners Brad Ilott (Ashgrove) and Hassan Sardar (Toombul) coming into the side this season. 

The Greens will know they are capable of improving on last year's two-win season after losing several games by narrow margins.

Can they cause an early upset? We will find out.