Two brothers - Russells Creek's Matt and Merrivale's Jarrod - are in friendly competition for the number one spot.

Matt, a first-year captain, has bagged 14 scalps while Jarrod, his younger sibling, has 13. They have daylight on the rest of the competition, with the next-best bowler on nine after four matches.

Jarrod, a criminology student, is finding form after ankle and back complaints.

He's on the cusp of a career-best campaign, already equalling his wicket total from this past season.

"(The body feeling good) is part of it," Jarrod said.

"I've got the new ball again this year which has also been really helpful. I've been bowling at the end of games too which isn't something I've been doing a lot of.

"It just helps, finishing off the game, which is hopefully what I've been able to do and can hopefully keep doing."

Jarrod said he and Matt were enjoying "a little bit of competition" around wicket totals.

"We both throw a few words around," he laughed.

"He was a bit disappointed about (Creek) getting washed out on the weekend. He got a couple of wickets when they bowled.

"We've got a double game this weekend so hopefully it's a chance (to get ahead). It's just for a bit of fun."

Despite decent showings against Brierly-Christ Church, Dennington and Russells Creek, Merrivale is winless after four fixtures.

Jarrod said the Tigers were on the brink of stringing victories together.

"Realistically the only game we're out of was against Woodford in round three," he said.

"The other games have been close. We've dropped (Matt Love) and (Cam Williams) against Brierly and Creek and they probably went on to win them the game.

"We'll get one, we're not far off it. We've just been half in games and we've had moments when we've lapsed out. Once we've fixed that we should be able to get one."

Jarrod said the congested fixture leading into Christmas meant there were plenty of opportunities to correct form.

"We've got a couple of winnable games against Wesley-CBC and West Warrnambool this weekend," he said.

"We've pretty much got three games within a week. Once we can get a game, we can go on with it, I reckon."

He revealed captain-coach Justin Lynch and recruit Otto Opperman were strong inclusions.

"It's been very good to have them back. They've been very good for our batting," Jarrod said.

"It definitely just evened out batting a bit more right across the board."

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