Hanwood will have some welcome inclusions for their clash with Exies Eagles on Exies No 2 on Saturday afternoon.
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Having made the move to play grade cricket in Melbourne, Tom Shannon will return to Hanwood this weekend and will be re-joined at the top of the order by Oliver Bartter.
It is a premiership-winning opening combination, and Hanwood captain Charlie Cunial knows this will have a positive impact on the side.
"Shanno will be a big in for us and then, of course, with Oliver coming back for his first game since he hurt himself, so it will be great to have the openers back together," he said.
"Oliver was looking like he was going to score a lot of runs before he got hurt."
The stats tell the story for Bartter as even with missing the last couple of games before Christmas, the talented opener averages 69, with the bat having scored 138 from his two innings.
It has been a while between matches for Hanwood, having not played since the festive period, having had their game against Coro washed out before having the bye on a rain-affected round last weekend.
"It will be good to get back into cricket after having such a long break as well with all the washouts and byes and stuff like that," he said.
"We haven't played a game after Christmas yet, so it will be good to get back in the swing of things."
It has been a season filled with interruptions with three-straight washouts in November followed up by a wet start to January, and Cunial feels that makes it hard to actually get a gauge on the teams around them.
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"It is hard to get any sort of momentum," he said.
"You have one good week, and then you miss out on two and then have a bye, so you are playing cricket every three weeks, it is hard to keep form and stuff like that.
"Time in the middle is as good as anything, and I think anyone can win on any week, really. There is no real gauge on how people are going."
The other unknown facing clubs is COVID, and its impact on the playing XI, but Cunial feels his side have been lucky to avoid any real impact.
"I would have missed the first week back because of COVID," he said.
"But I think we have been pretty lucky with it. We haven't really been affected at all by it at the moment."
The Eagles haven't been as fortunate, with a number of the first-grade side having missed training in recent weeks due to COVID concerns.
A win this weekend would see the Hanwood side rise to first position, with Coro having the bye.
The first ball will be bowled at 1pm on Saturday.
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