THEY were a force at last season's Cricket NSW Country Colts Carnival and even after they had to make several late changes to their squad you can expect a young Western outfit to once again be a force in this week's next edition.
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Western begins their campaign this Tuesday at Shoalhaven with a strong core of returning players from last year's champion squad and a host of exciting newcomers to the age group.
The defending champions will be without Dubbo's Fletcher Hyde and Mudgee's Fergus Fergusson but have brought in Bathurst's Liam Cain and Lithgow's Murray Staines to take their place.
Western ended a 16-year wait for colts glory last season when they enjoyed an undefeated run at Queanbeyan.
Garth Dean returns to once again coach the under 19s team and believes he's got a very capable squad on hand for the title defence.
Hyde may be missing but there is still a strong Dubbo presence with captain Hugh Sienkiewicz joined by Tyson Deebank, Harry Roscarel and new South Dubbo co-captains Ted Murray and Lockie Rummans all selected.
"With the timing of the carnival it made things difficult with the HSC and we also lost Ant Atlee with calf surgery so having to make a couple of changes wasn't ideal," Dean said.
"We've got some great extra spin options now. We're also not going to lose anything in our fielding, which was a big strength for us last time.
"The only question mark is the younger players who are key bats and whether they can stand up to guys who are two years older."
If Western's bowling attack lives up to its potential then there's a strong chance that it alone can take the team to another great result.
"We're going to be relying heavily on our fielding and bowling to restrict totals," Dean said.
"The batters that have come in, even though they're young they're high level players. We've got two state squad 17s players in there."
Western's first match of the tournament will be against the North Coastal Colts on Tuesday at 10am.
- WESTERN: Hugh Sienkiewicz (c), Tom Blowes, Liam Cain, Tyson Deebank, Luke Hunter, Riley Keen, Edward Murray, Angus Parsons, Harry Roscarel, Lachlan Rummans, Murray Staines, Hugh Taylor, Connor Whale.
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