The Cats - featuring a strong contingent of Warrnambool, Hamilton and south-west based players - will finally put practice into play when they take on Ringwood in the Premier seconds and thirds on Sunday, October 9.

The opening round fixtures this weekend were abandoned due to inclement weather with points shared.

The club is also fielding a women's team in the Cricket Victoria Women's Community Cricket Competition to cater for their 45-player list.

Dunkeld-based Field said the Cats were putting the finishing touches on a strong pre-season.

"We've got our pre-season camp this week (in Geelong), so it'll be fantastic - we'll have virtually all the squad there which will be a combination of things, playing, practising and team bonding so we think it'll be a great opportunity for the girls," she said.

"We've got plenty of new players in the squad and there's a different fabric across the three grades."

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The club's far south-west training squad, which features the likes of talented locals Annabelle Glossop (Nestles), Charlotte Poyner (Brierly Christ Church), Alice Cann (Nestles), Eliza Jagger (Hamilton), Ella Couch (Nestles), Grace Lee (Pomborneit), Grace Schrama (Allansford-Panmure), Jess Field (Hamilton), Maddie Green (Port Fairy), Ruby Couch (Nestles) and more have been training the house down.

"In terms of the rest of our Hamilton and Warrnambool-based girls, we've been training for the last 10 weeks and the one great thing we've had up our sleeve is the brilliant indoor facility at Hamilton," Field said.

"We haven't missed a beat to be honest - I know for the Geelong-based girls in the squad and the Melbourne clubs too it's been hard to train and it's been compromised because of the weather.

"We have had a golden run to be honest."

Field said gun Warrnambool recruits Steph Townsend - a dual premiership player with Melbourne who will combine coaching with playing - as well as Tiegan Kavanagh were providing the group a big lift.

Kavanagh is a pace bowler who has previous first grade experience with NSW Country and in NSW Women's Premier Cricket.

"I couldn't speak more highly of them both, they've been fantastic with their experience and professionalism," he said.

"It's taken them very little time to gain the respect of the girls, they'll be brilliant acquisitions for us."

He admitted the club faced some interesting selection calls to balance out the three teams this season.

"The first team isn't as difficult because you're essentially picking your best team and we'll mix it up here and there but in the other two grades it's more complicated," he said.

"The shield comp is potentially stronger than Premier thirds so you have that issue where you want to make your second team your Premier thirds team and it's important in terms of getting promoted.

"But it's beneficial to play shield, so it's going to be a juggling act for sure. That's one of the key conversations we'll be having with the players this week."

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