Born into the Nestles cricket family, she played her junior cricket alongside brothers Geoff ‘Wiz’ and Cameron Williams.

She’d grabbed what opportunities she could while playing in the underage competition and even captained the Western Waves representative side for a couple of years, but when she hit the end of her teens, the options dried up.

“There was nowhere further for me locally to go when I turned 17 or 18, so I had to actually ‘retire’, as you say,” Herbertson said.

But the mother-of-two is happy to see times have changed.

She will coach Nestles’ under 17 team in the Warrnambool and District Cricket Association’s Renegades Girls competition this summer, following in the footsteps of her father, who coached Herbertson and her siblings, and her elder brother Geoff, who is the current division one captain-coach.

Herbertson said she was thrilled to see the level of interest in the under 17 competition, which has drawn six teams. The under 14 Renegades girls competition will field eight teams.

“I haven’t seen this many girls play cricket – there hasn’t been this many girls interested,” she said.

“We never had a formal team. When I was young, it wasn’t a thing for girls to play cricket and when you did, it was really hard to get anywhere.

“It was mainly a guys’ sport, but now we’ve got more of a support system through Cricket Victoria, the league (WDCA) and also the Western Waves pathways program.

“We’ve got a few girls in our team that are in the Western Waves pathways.

“We’ve got Milo IN2cricket and then we’ve got under 14 girls and under 17 girls. To have three pathways is just fantastic.”

Tahliyah Fulton, 13, is one player who will line up for Nestles this season.

Having never played cricket before, she tried her hand at bowling for the first time at training last week, and her improvement was rapid.

“She couldn’t bowl a ball, it was more of a throwing action,” Herbertson said. “We took the time to work through the bowling action and within 20 minutes she had it down pat and then this week it’s a straight arm.”

Tahliyah said a friend at school had encouraged her to take up the sport and was keen to prove she too could play it.

“Mainly through the fact it’s considered a boys’ sport, not a girls’ sport,” Tahliyah said. “I haven’t tried batting (yet), but I like bowling.

“(This is) my first season, but hopefully not the last.”

Kira Firth, 18, will compete in the under 17 competition, with rules in place allowing some overage cricketers to take part.

Kira played for South West Cricket side Mortlake for a few years and has also been a Western Waves representative. She was also part of the Cricket Without Borders tour of Fiji in 2015.

“I’m looking forward to having some fun and working on my skills,” she said.

The Renegades Girls under 17 competition will be run as a Twenty20 competition and launches next Wednesday, October 25.

Unlike last summer, matches will be played for premiership points, with finals to follow the ninth round.

Nirranda and Nestles will play on Australia Day as part of the Sungold Milk Twenty20 Cup day.

Woodford, Koroit, West Warrnambool and Brierly-Christ Church will also field teams.

The under 14 girls competition starts on November 1 and will feature teams from West Warrnambool, Allansford, Russells Creek, Panmure, East Warrnambool WCW, Port Fairy, Koroit and Nestles.

It will run for seven rounds, finishing on December 13.

WDCA chairman Gordon McLeod said the competitions would follow the same format as the boys’ Twenty20, but would see 10 consecutive overs bowled at an end before a change, allowing the match to be completed quicker.

Players will be moved around the field, bowlers allowed a maximum of three overs each and batters to retire on 30.

“The idea is they play all positions,” McLeod said.

If teams have fewer than the 11 required players, girls can have a second go with the bat until 10 wickets have fallen.

South West Sport program manager Andrew Sloane said 

“From South West Sport’s perspective, we’re about trying to create opportunities for people to be more active in their life,” he said.

“There’s an obvious gap in particular for girls to play cricket in this region (so we’ve looked to address that).”

For more information or for girls interested in joining a team, visit the ‘Warrnambool & District Cricket Association’ Facebook Page or contact Andrew Sloane at South West Sport on 5561 1689.