And if the Benalla Bushrangers’ final few rounds of the 2025-2026 Wangaratta and District Cricket Association season were any indication, the Bushies could be in for a massive 2026-2027 campaign.
The WDCA A grade competition returns this weekend, and Benalla is set to be a serious dark horse, backed by some big names and a plethora of local talent, and encouraging form from the back end of last season to build upon.
It shapes as an exciting start to what is hoped to be a big campaign across the entire club, with president James Ladd confident the Bushies were in a good place on the eve of the season.
“(Things are looking) really, really good, we’ve got four senior teams, which is pretty exciting, and we’ve got some new recruits,” he said.
“We’ve also got two under-16s, two under-14s, three under-12s, and an under-12 girls team as well, so it'’s looking very exciting.
“Everybody’s really excited, we had a few Melbourne Premier Cricket clubs, Richmond and Fitzroy, up to use the Gardens in the preseason with Matt Hadj and Trevor Saker preparing the wicket, and we had a practice match last weekend against Macedon, which was a success.
“It’s going really well, and we've got a really strong committee as well with everybody helping out.”
The A grade Bushies will take to Benalla Gardens Oval at 12:30pm on Saturday in a one-day contest against Beechworth Wanderers to kick off the new season, and will look to continue the purple patch that saw them win three of their final four contests to end the 25/26 campaign.
Having gone winless in the first month of last season, the Bushies finally got on the board in round five, though a bye and a pair of abandoned contests meant they played just once across the following four weeks, narrowly going down to eventual runner-up Rovers United Bruck by eight runs.
When they finally took to the field again with consistency, the Bushies made a brilliant late-season charge towards finals, knocking off top-four side Ovens Valley United amid a run of three straight victories, falling just one game shy of a finals berth when all was said and done.
Add to that a strong T20 portion of the season, going 2-2 across four short-format games including a two-run defeat to premier Yarrawonga-Mulwala, and the Bushies have reason to be optimistic heading into the new campaign.
The rapid development — Benalla’s A grade side went 1-10 in the 2024-2025 season — comes under the tutelage of former Melbourne Renegade and Victorian Second XI player Brayden Stepien, though that won’t be the case this season.
“We've decided to go in a different direction there this season,” Ladd said.
“We’re not having a coach this season, we’ve got Tom O'Donnell who's, I suppose, our marquee player and captain of A grade, and he's helping us around the club.”
O’Donnell, son of former Australian Test cricketer Simon O’Donnell, is one of the biggest coups in country cricket this season, with the towering seamer having represented Victoria in the One Day Cup, as well as playing for Australia at under-19 level, the Cricket Australia XI, the National Performance Squad, and enjoying a stellar career with Essendon in the strong Premier Cricket competition in Melbourne.
And the Bushrangers didn’t even have to chase his signature, instead ending up the beneficiary of O’Donnell relocating to the region and wanting some involvement in local cricket.
“He was buying a property up in the area and reached out to us saying he wanted to be involved,” Ladd said of the signing.
“The ground brought him here, I suppose, and what he’d learned and knew about the club.
“What we really hope is, and we’re already seeing it, is that he is really assisting in bringing more people to the club, but also helping us in our juniors as well, and bringing our juniors into senior cricket.
“We know that we have to get that right in order to ensure that the club continues in a positive way, because if we don’t have junior players staying on after they finish in under-16s, there’s a lot of us still in our 30s and 40s who will be playing, but we need those younger kids to keep playing as well.”
While always looking to develop the next generation of Benalla cricketers, the club already has a strong contingent of underage players in the ranks, and is hopeful that the taste of senior cricket they have already received will hold them in good stead this season.
“Yeah, we are definitely expecting to be very competitive this year, and feeling really positive about it,” Ladd said of the club’s A grade chances.
“Last year our under-16s were probably in the bottom-age area, so those guys are moving their way up and we've got some really, really exciting talent coming through.
“Some of those guys got exposure in A grade and A reserve last year, and hopefully we get to see them picked on the weekend.”
