Warrnambool, South West cricketers named in Geelong junior female academy for season 2022-23

Warrnambool and District youngsters Charlotte Eldridge (Nestles), Hannah Wallace (Russells Creek/Hawkesdale), Isabella Kelly (Allansford-Panmure) and Zarah Timpson (Nestles), as well as South West Cricket product Nellie Sadler (Pomborneit) will form part of the 27-player Puma squad.

The squad - to be coached by Geelong women's head coach and Dunkeld local Stephen Field, Western Waves under 15 coach Grace Lee and former Vic Country and current senior player Jess Field - will train once a month alongside the Premier squad and learn what it takes to transition into the semi-professional competition.

Stephen told The Standard it was an important initiative in not only bringing more female players into Premier Cricket but preparing them for the rigours of elite sport.

"We're preparing for them to experience all the honours of Premier cricket without them having to go away from their community clubs," he said.

"A big part of our focus is that girls are generally entering Premier cricket too early and we want them to stay in the sport for a long time.

"Staying in your community and with your mates as long as you can is really important but at the same time make sure they have access to the facilities and the coaching so when they do arrive at a time to play Premier, they feel comfortable."

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The Cats mentor said it was exciting to see the talent developing strongly through the south-west.

"For a long period of time, the south-west has provided a lot of talent to Premier clubs (in Melbourne), that's girls from Warrnambool, Hamilton and so forth," he said.

"As the Geelong competitions have come into existence and got stronger and stronger, we're really starting to see the increase in (talent). The standard of the squad is fantastic.

"We've already seen it in the Puma squad from last year - Zara Kelly (Allansford-Panmure) will debut in our ones on the weekend and she was in that program and got to experience so much and then transitioned into pre-season. She's gone from strength to strength with her bowling."

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