Altona Roosters are hoping to still be among the mix in the Victorian Turf Cricket Association Isaacs Howarth Shield this season.
The Roosters fell just short of the grand final last year in their first season in division 1, with a semi final appearance.
Roosters vice-president Nathan Moon said they had kept a lot of their core players.
“We’re going OK,” he said. “We lost a few handy ones but we will still be in the mix.
“It’s an opportunity to have some new players step into the side.”
Moon said they had added a few new players but no big names.
He said they had added some depth across their second and third XIs as well.
“Hopefully these guys will perform well and there’s opportunities in the ones,” he said. “We haven’t gone out and got out and out guns.
“We’ve got a couple of young guys from Sri Lanka coming out but we’re still processing their visas so they will arrive later.
“There will be some challenges with personnel but the opportunities present guys to get opportunities in the first grade which they haven’t got the last few years.
Moon said last season and making finals was massive for the club.
“It was a massive step for us to come up and play in division 1,” he said. “There is huge belief from the guys that we were in the right position.
“We were a difficult team to beat, a competitive team.”
Moon said the key for them was to start well to try and set up their season.
He said division 1 is one of the toughest divisions with sides coming down from senior division keen to get back up and other teams coming up that want to progress through the ranks.
Across the club, things were tracking well for the Roosters.
They will have an under-18s turf side for the first time this year. The Roosters are still looking for a couple more players.
Moon said with an aging list they were keen to see some of those players progress into the senior teams.
The club is also set to field five senior teams.
The VTCA season again had a delayed start, with round one which was set for Saturday postponed due to not enough grounds being ready.
The Roosters kicked off their season against Sunshine on Saturday after the fixture wsa rejigged to ensure games went ahead.
The Roosters made 8-160 from their overs with Resandu Thilakarathna top scored with 67.
Sunshine got the runs in the 32nd over, finishing 7-161.
Three players took two wickets each for the Roosters.
In other results, the Druids beat Footscray United while Seddon got the win against Doutta Stars.
