Cats captain Todd Lamont although finals were always the goal, he would have to see what the seven other top-grade sides had to offer before assessing his charges’ chances.

“We’ll just have to wait and see how we settle and wait and see how the opposition is looking,” he said.

“Obviously we’d like to win it again, (but) we’ve just got to make sure we’re in contention and we’re playing well again.”

The Cats started their season with two Twenty20 wins last Saturday, seeing off a surprising challenge from division one returnees Camperdown in the morning before a handy win over a strong Bookaar unit in the afternoon.

They did it without all of their first XI on the park, calling on junior players Isaac Wareham and Oliver Mahncke, and Jack Lehmann, who is in his first fully senior season, to fill the void.

“They played really well on the weekend,” Lamont said. “They got us across the line.”

Lamont played his role, too, collecting eight wickets across the two games. He collected 4-16 against Camperdown, including the prized scalp of opener Jye McLaughlin, who’d made 53 runs, and followed up with a withering 4-9 against Bookaar.

“I was a bit surprised; I haven’t done a lot of bowling so far,” Lamont said.

“They didn’t come out really well the first game – I was a bit lucky to get a few wickets – but they came out better in the second game.”

It was a solid start from Lamont, who took 15 wickets across the Twenty20 and one-day formats last summer.

The Cats have retained their 2016-17 premiership-winning list, but Lamont said the division one side was unlikely to be full-strength until after Christmas. In the meantime, the next generation of Cats players will push their case for a regular senior spot.

“We’d love to win a flag, but there’s more in it than that,” Lamont said. “We’re trying to build up the juniors.

“There’s a few boys that are getting towards the end of their career, they want to prove they still deserve a spot in the team, then there’s the young ones that are trying to push for a spot.

“The motivation’s there (to stay competitive).”