And with a $500 Hip Pocket Workwear & Safety Shepparton voucher up for grabs for the victor, there is no way you can do too much research before selecting your 12-player squad.
As a reminder of the rules, your 12 players must be comprised of three players from each Crane Aid GVBBL franchise — the Cobram Panel Works Panthers, SRP Mud Dogs, Jarvis Delahey Crushers and Hurley's Hotel Hounds.
You may select one of the franchise captains and two marquees, but they must all be from separate outfits, while two trades are allowed in between rounds to adjust your squad.
Before lockout you need to select a team captain to snare double points, a vice-captain as their back-up and designate a 12th man as an emergency.
Points are awarded for runs (one point), catches (five), unassisted wickets (15), assisted wickets (10), unassisted run-outs (10), assisted run-outs (five), stumpings (10), three-wicket hauls (15) and half-centuries (15).
On the agenda today is assessing how each franchise might line-up for round one.
Predicted GVBBL round one teams
Cobram Panel Works Panthers
A late change to the squad for the Panthers has Tarisai Musakanda replaced by Essendon's James Seymour in one of the marquee slots. All players are available for the first round of action on Sunday, making for tough selection decisions for captain-coach Matt Jaensch. It also makes predicting their starting 11 — and batting order — almost impossible for us, but we will give it a crack.
Likely line-up: Wian Van Zyl, James Seymour, Michael Eckard, Isaac Willett, Matt Jaensch, Kyle Humphrys, Romario Greaves, Luke Quinn, Adam De Cicco, Jordan Cleeland, Lachlan McMillan. Bench: Riley Gow, James Tierney, Ben Fulford, Saranjit Kalsi.
Comments: The top of the batting order speaks for itself, but in the name of team balance the likes of Humphrys, Greaves, Quinn and McMillan may shade Gow for the final spot in the 11.
Hurley's Hotel Hounds
We have some help with the Hounds as Brenton Campbell and Gino Saracino are unavailable for round one, while Matt Hinks — invoking memories of Ollie Wines from last summer — is under an injury cloud after hurting himself while waterskiing.
Likely line-up: David Newman, Michael Archer, Jedd Wright, Kyle Mueller, James Nanopoulos, Tom Donnell, Matt Dwyer, Luke Forge, Darin Ohlsen, Lewis Rankin, Jackson McLay. Bench: Jake Gascoyne, Matt Hinks, Brenton Campbell, Gino Saracino.
Comments: The Hounds have a flexible and deep batting order which will provide the platform for their simple strategy — if you make a mountain of runs you are going to defend the total more times than not. It will likely change as the match situation dictates.
Jarvis Delahey Crushers
Another outfit with all 15 men available for its first outing. The Crushers are tough to assess and could go a number of ways with their initial 11.
Likely line-up: Josh McDonald, Richard Oliver, Dylan Grandell, Ash Saunders, Andrew Riordan, Ramadan Yze, Ash Quinn, Dwain Vidler, Corey Hickford, Peter Cassidy, Chaminda Vidanapathirana. Bench: Connor Holland, Luke Patel, Sam Dorsey, Mitch McGrath.
Comments: McDonald and Oliver will open the batting, but with Grandell, Holland and McGrath also openers by trade it is likely only one of them starts. Grandell gets the nod with more runs on the board, but Holland's fielding will be missed if he starts on the pine. A team that bats and bowls deep.
SRP Mud Dogs
An easy 11 to pick, but an impossible one to put in order. Co-coach Rohan Larkin has already named his side for round one, but with all-rounders filling almost every spot in the squad even captain Mitch Winter-Irving will be throwing darts at the teamsheet when deciding his batting order.
Likely line-up: Mitch Winter-Irving, Brendan Scott, Keegan Armstrong, Mark Nolan, Layton McCann, Joel Brett, Liam Hocking, Cade Mueller, Hadleigh Sirett, Alistair McCann, Liam Smith. Bench: Hamish Winter-Irving, Scott Richardson, Xavier Chalkley, Pat Cormican.
Comments: Unsure how close we are to the mark here as the top nine could all be in the wrong position, but this is the 11 that will take to the field barring a late change.
To submit your team, email sport@sheppnews.com.au before 11 am on Sunday.
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