The 2024/25 Under 18 men’s competition is underway, with the first two rounds seeing plenty of starring performances and big victories.
This season marks the second time the competition has taken place following a successful inaugural campaign.
In 2023/24 all 18 teams were separated into three pools, playing three 50-over matches and two T20s. St Kilda proved too strong for Melbourne in the Grand Final at the CitiPower Centre by 28 runs.
All-rounder Harry Jones received the Player of the Match award, scoring 60 off 59 balls before taking 3-52 in Melbourne’s innings.
Unlike the inaugural run, this season’s Under 18 men’s competition will take place in a different format. The pool system has been abolished while each team will play nine games instead of five.
So far two rounds of one-day matches have taken place, with the closest game to date taking place in the opening round where Melbourne Uni emerged victorious against Kingston Hawthorn at Walter Galt Reserve.
Krish Kumar came up clutch with the ball, acquiring three wickets and restricting the hosts to just four runs in the final over to help his side over the line by three runs.
Melbourne Uni’s Raph Cramb also hit a game high 49 runs from 88 balls whilst Lucas Kennedy scored a team-high 47 runs for Kingston Hawthorn.
Greenvale and Frankston Peninsula both won by similar margins, the Kangaroos defeating Northcote by 46 runs and the Heat winning by 47 runs against Dandenong.
It was the Samuel Syan show all day at Greenvale Reserve, the opener hitting a quickfire 54 off 56 balls before taking 7/20 off five and a half overs.
At AH Butler Oval, Frankston Peninsula’s Cody Irving was the pick of the bowlers with 5/26 off nine overs. Dandenong’s Shehzad Singh shone with the bat, scoring a game-high 73 runs.
Finally, Footscray and Prahran both won comfortably away from home to boost their net run rate.
In the Bulldogs nine wicket victory over Fitzroy Doncaster at Schramms Reserve, Viraaj Aulakh took 5/29 off eight overs in the first innings before Aayan Nadeem strung together an entertaining knock of 80 not out.
Prahran’s 78-run victory over Casey South Melbourne was led by Jesse van Rooyen’s produce 71 runs whilst they also had five players take no more than two wickets each.
Unfortunately, games at Central Reserve, Ian Johnson Oval and Russell Lucas Oval cancelled due to the wet weather present that weekend.
All 18 sides took to the field in Round Two though, with one of the more entertaining games of the round taking place at Camberwell Sports Ground between the Magpies and Carlton.
A total of 514 runs were scored between the sides, with Ed Winneke contributing 127 to Camberwell’s score of 270 and Blues opener Keir Lucas adding 109.
Camberwell’s Jobe Fraser proved the difference, scoring 46 runs off 52 balls before having figures of 6-38 off 10 overs to help guide the Magpies to a 26-run victory.
It was a tense contest at Casey Fields between Casey South Melbourne and Northcote which saw the latter win by 28 runs.
Earl Dicesare’s run a ball 51 was key to Northcote’s success while Aydan Williams figures of 3-32 wasn’t enough to get Casey’s first win of the season.
Unlike Casey South Melbourne, Fitzroy Doncaster made up for its Round 1 loss to Footscray with a 51-run win over Dandenong.
In a game for the bowlers, Kepler Lukies collected four wickets for the Lions while Dandenong’s Paarth Pandey and Mohammed Abedi had three wickets respectively.
Prahran atoned for its semi-final loss last year to St Kilda with a six-wicket win at the Harry Trott Oval.
Thomas Tsatas led the Prahran bowling attack with figures of 4-30 before Jesse van Rooyen had another match-winning innings of 43 runs.
Geelong had a positive start to its season with a 42-run win over Footscray. Ted Bain scored 100 off 116 balls, with Footscray’s Daniel Wilczynski having the game’s best figures of 4-26.
Ringwood, Richmond, Melbourne and Greenvale all had massive victories over Kingston Hawthorn, Frankston Peninsula, Essendon and Melbourne University respectively.
The Rams nine-wicket win over the Hawks at Walter Galt Reserve was led by three wickets each for Sam Montgomery, Ryan Doherty and Lachlan Payne along with Archie Flynn and Jackson Edwards’ unbroken 126-run partnership.
Greenvale also won by nine wickets against Melbourne Uni at University Main Oval. Syan had figures of 2-7 off five overs, along with 64 runs, whilst Hamish Mullavey-Clark had game-high figures of 4-19 off his 10 overs.
Richmond’s Charlie Morris and Griffin Box led from the front in their side’s 89-run victory over Frankston Peninsula, hitting a collective 128 runs. Box also had the game’s best bowling figures of 3-20.
Ritin Raman’s 99 runs helped Melbourne on its way to a 153-run win. Raman combined well with fellow opener Sam Anderson, who acquired 73 runs, before Joe Curtain and James Rosham picked up three wickets each in the second innings.
The Under 18 Male competition will now take a break before it returns on November 24th. Greenvale and Prahran head into the break on top with two wins respectively, but they’re being closely trailed by teams from 3rd to 7th who all sit on seven points each.