The Warrnambool and District Cricket Association division one club under new mentor Tyler Fowler are steadily preparing for what shapes as an important campaign for the Panthers.

Fowler - who replaced Alastair Templeton in the Panthers' coaching role - told The Standard the club was excited to see the young talent come through and hopefully lead the charge this season.

"We'll officially start pre-season mid to late August, but we've had a couple of lads who have had a few hits in the last couple of weekends which is great," he said.

"It's great we've some good young lads coming through - even through our juniors, our under 17s have been strong for a few years now. Some of those are coming through nicely and developing into really good senior cricketers.

"Guys like Joey Nyikos, Hayden McGovern are probably perfect examples of that - Hayden is still 16 I think so he's exciting for us."

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The former Woodford bowler said the past few seasons had taught the group a lot and believed it would hold them in good stead.

The Panthers finished sixth in 2021-22 and sixth in 2020-21 and will be hoping to return to WDCA division one finals cricket for the first time since the 2019-20 season.

"Hopefully we can push back into finals, we've missed out pretty narrowly over the last two years which is really disappointing as a club," he said.

"We're hopeful we'll work on a few areas that let us down and will get back into finals. A few more senior heads around those younger guys will help them develop as well."

The club also confirmed reigning Brebner Cup winner Ben Threlfall would go on for his third season as skipper, with Fowler "excited" to work with the star batsman who plundered 454 division one runs at 56.8 last season.

Fowler added the club was in talks for a couple of 'strong' recruits to play at Davidson Oval this season and bolster the squad both on and off the field.

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