Sport
24 June, 2026
First ‘domino’ commits to association switch
ST ARNAUD Cricket Club will join the Upper Loddon association next season, the first of three dominoes expected to fall in a major boost for the local competition.
ST ARNAUD Cricket Club will join the Upper Loddon association next season, the first of three dominoes expected to fall in a major boost for the local competition.
Saints’ members met on Monday night and voted to accept the Upper Loddon’s invitation to join, with the competition’s junior program the decisive factor.
Charlton members were gathering last night to discuss the proposal, with the club tipped to join St Arnaud in transferring from the Wimmera Mallee Cricket Association.
Marnoo is the third club to have been invited to make the switch, with all the clubs committed to telling the Upper Loddon of their plans by June 30.
With only five teams in the Wimmera Mallee competition, St Arnaud’s decision is expected to help prompt Charlton and Marnoo to move.
If the three clubs transfer, the Upper Loddon will have a strong eight-team competition in 2026-27.
St Arnaud president Jason Smith said the club’s decision was made because of the opportunity offered for junior players in the Upper Loddon.
He said St Arnaud juniors had played in a Donald Friday night competition and taken part in local skills and drills training, “but the kids want to play for a side”.
Upper Loddon last week invited the three clubs to join the association, which currently has five senior teams as well as four junior sides – Boort, Wedderburn Band, Kingower and Bridgewater.
“It might seem like a spur of the moment decision to an outsider, but it has been in the back of our minds, and we have been unofficially speaking about what we need to do to get that link up between juniors and seniors,” Smith said.
At one point St Arnaud had an eight-team junior competition of its own, and as recently as the early 2000s was able to field a six-team league of 12 players each.
Smith said it had been eight years “since we have had anything meaningful for juniors in St Arnaud, and the comp was a bit of a shambles for a little bit”.
He said young cricketers either played for clubs elsewhere and went on to play senior cricket for those clubs, or they drifted into playing tennis.
“If you don’t have juniors, you won’t have seniors in five or 10 years’ time.”
Upper Loddon president Kane Arnold said: “It’s an exciting time for the association and it breathes a bit of new life into the competition.”
He said the boost to the number of teams might encourage more players to join the existing clubs.
The Upper Loddon will hold a board meeting in mid-July to ratify any moves, with Arnold confident that current clubs would welcome the expansion.
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