TCL 2021-22 season preview: Clubs out to stop Hadspen's four-peat

Last year's nine clubs remain in the league with no promotion or relegation, making for an interesting season ahead.

Last year: Premiers

Coach: Alan Eadie

Captain: Liam Reynolds

Ins: Justin Reeves (Mowbray)

Outs: Thanuka Dabare, Dilan Jayalath

Reynolds says: "Obviously we can't dwell on previous results so we start afresh again and look to play a good brand of cricket all the way through, improving as a team and individuals. [Justin] is a high quality cricketer, he's been around for a long time and taken a lot of NTCA A-grade wickets. We are really looking forward to him teaching our young guys a few things and a few techniques and they can gain experience off him.

Players to watch: Dane Anderson, John LeFevre

Last year: Grand finalists

Coach: James Whiteley

Captain: James Whiteley

Ins: Pravish Prakash, Arlen Thompson, Caleb Lawson

Outs: Dan Forster, Liam Brown, Nick Garwood

Whiteley said: "Same as last year, we have a group of good cricketers but they are better people and we pride ourselves on that. We haven't had a practice match this year intentionally so we can spend more time together, so expectations are very much to be competitive and be there in that top two or three."

Players to watch: Caleb Lawson and Jacob Millwood

READ MORE: UTAS scores cricket boost

Last year: Third

Coach: Josh Adams

Captain: Richard Howe

Ins: Bhagesh Goyal, Matthew Lawrence (Perth), Sam Henley (Cressy)

Outs: Yeshan Wickramarachchi, Nasrullah Khan, Thomas Dwyer

Jackson Blair says: "The expectations for us are to play consistent cricket throughout the year and set us up to play deep into finals and the ultimate goal is to get a premiership cup back. Everyone is pretty keen to get back as we are all pretty disappointed as a club to finish as we did, especially in the premier league.

Player to watch: Bhagesh Goyal

Last year: Fourth

Coach: Mat Devlin

Captains: Mason Keane and Matt Rigby

Ins: Zakhan Nizar, Ashan Kalim, Rila Rizvy, Abdullah Mubeen, Rameez Siddique, Arkam Akbar, Brayden Pitcher (all Victoria), Matthew Walton (Burnie), Damien Clarke, Nathan Collins, Callum Whiley (all Diggers), Tyson Burns (ACL)

Outs: John Hayes (Mowbray), Matthew Lawrence (Longford), Jake Carins (year off)

Devlin says: "We just want to continue on where we left off last year. Obviously we were eliminated due to the weather, not by actually losing, so our expectation is finals after breaking the drought and making finals for the first time in the club's history in Prem. We expect to do that again and compete with every team. The feeling at the club has been absolutely fantastic and we've had record numbers at training - we've had a really positive start."

Players to watch: Zakhan Nizar and Rila Rizvy

READ MORE: Tigers rookie grabs Shield chance

Last year: Fifth

Captain: Dylan Sharman

Ins: Tate Jacob, Aaron Dusautoy

Outs: Sam Howe, Ben Walker (Riverside), Geoff Stick, Sam Hay

Sharman says: "We are expecting to maintain that spot around the middle of the ladder. I think Hadspen and Longford are streaks above most teams but I think we could finish anywhere between third and sixth like we have the last couple of years. We've maintained a lot of our core group and getting Aaron and potentially Matty Wells to play a lot more cricket this year, I think those two will make a lot of difference. I'd love to play finals and finishing fifth last year, only a game out of finals, I think we can do that."

Players to watch: Aaron and Jarrod Dusautoy, Tate Jacob

Last year: Sixth

Coach: Shaun Woods

Captain: Nashib Nisthar

Ins: Keith Phair, Sahil Nagi, Thushyanth Sivagnanasuntharam, Azeem Iqrah, Deval Raval

Nisthar says: "This year we have got a good balance - some good batters, bowlers and all-rounders in our team. We have our experienced players in Woodsy, [Simon] Chappell and Cameron [Martin] and we are looking forward to the season and we hope we will be able to give it a good fight and make finals.

Players to watch: Shaun Woods, Cameron Martin

READ MORE: Hurricanes nab Brooks

Last year: Seventh

Captain: Jonty Manktelow

Coach: Jonty Manktelow

Ins: Sagar Chhetri (Launceston Nepali), Isuru Amarawansha (Victoria), Gayathra Pathirana.

Manktelow says: "We are definitely aiming to make finals. After our first year as a whole club, merging together, getting used to each other and gelling as a group, we've had that experience and now we are looking to be better and push into that top four.

Player to watch: Gayathra Pathirana

READ MORE: Beams bullish on WBBL chances

Last year: Eighth

Coach: Jack Hill

Captain: Sam Cooke

Ins: Sam Freeman (Mowbray), Jarrod Bailey (Beauty Point), Dylan Baker, Brody Earley (both South Launceston)

Outs: Gavin Nutting, Robbie Crane

Hill says: "The expectation is to be consistent for longer. In patches last year we were really good and exceeded our expectations and maybe others but this year, consistency is key - especially with our batting. [Getting Sam to the club] is a credit to the work that the club has done on its improvement with culture. It's about community engagement and it's a really exciting time for George Town cricket being back on our home ground.

Player to watch: Sam Cooke

Last year: Ninth

Captain: Jeremy Tuson

Coach: Brad Fryett

Ins: Jack Ross, David Shaw-Johnston, Jakeb Morris

Fryett says: "One of our main goals for the start of the year was to get two teams again [as a club], we've achieved that so that's a good start. Then it's just a matter of improving on what we did last year, where we thought we were in a lot of games, so if we can pick up a few more wins from that. From last year, we learned more about what it takes to win at a higher level when you're playing against better cricketers more consistently.

Player to watch: Jakeb Morris

Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can continue to access our trusted content: