The league will launch this summer for the 2026-27 season, with the executive body gathering expressions of interest to help formulate the competition’s set up.
A junior girls league follows the successful inaugural season of Cricket Shepparton’s women’s competition, with four teams splitting off from the previous Goulburn Murray Cricket women’s campaigns.
In 2025-26, Kyabram, Mooroopna, Nagambie and Shepparton Youth Club United featured in the women’s competition.
Cricket Shepparton hopes the junior comp will provide a pathway through to the senior action, but clubs aren’t limited to the four current outfits.
“We’ve been working on it behind the scenes for a couple of years and we thought it was time to dip our toes back in the girls game,” Cricket Shepparton president Narelle Clancy said.
“How it looks depends on what girls we get signed up, and after our annual general meeting in July the junior committee will take it on.
“We hope with the expressions of interest it may help clubs realise there are more girls out there wanting to play, or that they may have four or five girls already at the club and will be just a few numbers away from having a team.
“The bonus will be once the girls age out, there is the women’s competition they can join straight away.
“That being said, this competition won’t limit girls who are passionate and want to play mixed cricket, there are plenty of girls and women already who are taking it up to the boys.
“It creates a less daunting entry point for girls who want to try out the sport.”
Tatura Cricket Club, which played a girls-only side in the mixed under-12s last summer, has already thrown its support behind the competition, stating the plan for the junior program was “awesome”, while Shepparton Youth Club United too shared the Facebook post, signifying its keenness for the girls league.
“We had an incredible bunch of girls entered into the Under 12B [competition] this past season,” Tatura Cricket Club’s social media post read.
“They loved it and this is great news for all involved.”
Clancy expects Tatura will have a side for the girls comp in the 2026-27 season, plus ensured Cricket Shepparton won’t limit which clubs can join, being all dependent on numbers received in the expressions of interest forms.
Find the expressions of interest form on Cricket Shepparton’s Facebook or here.
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