DESPITE having no silverware to show for it, Ulladulla United have taken plenty of positives from their efforts during last season's Shoalhaven District Cricket Association.
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Their impressive campaign marked their first top-flight grand final in 10 years, going down in a thriller to Shoalhaven Ex-Servicemens at Hayden Drexel Oval.
"Making the final was a step in the right direction for the whole club last season," United captain Aaron Wester said.
"On top of that, our main goal was to improve on the year before, which I thought we did in all three formats."
Heading into the new five-team first grade competition - which gets underway this Saturday at Bomaderry - Wester is excited by his team's preparations heading into the 2019/20 season.
"Preparations have been really positive thus far and there's a real buzz around the group," he said.
"Some guys training really strongly and I'm hoping they can take that form into game day."
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Two of those players are Harley Bell and Peter King, who on their day, are as good as anyone in the competition, with bat and ball respectively.
"Harley [Bell] he was the leading run-scorer in first grade for the Shoalhaven last season (439 runs) and has been our highest run-scorer for the best part of 10 years," he said.
"We will need him to be at that level, if not even higher, for us to achieve what we want to accomplish this season.
"Then with the cherry, Peter [King] is a very consistent bowler, who has a great impact with the new ball and late in the limited-overs games."
Apart from these two stars, Wester acknowledges he will be counting on another one of his seamers to take that next step this season.
"I'm looking at Matt Shea to have a breakout season," he said.
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"He bowls with good pace and bounce, fields really well and will contribute a lot with the bat this season too."
While United have retained the majority of last year's squad, which also includes Rocky Lavalle, Bradley Field, Wes Holmes and Angus Rutherford, they have added Victorian bowler Rob Saker, wicketkeeper Matt Moodley and South African all-rounder Conrad Greenshield, who last played in the Netherlands.
"With the squad we've assembled, hopefully we can play finals in all formats this season," Wester said.
"We missed the finals for T20 format last year, so hopefully we can improve there."
United's match with the Tigers at Bomaderry Oval starts at 1pm on Saturday.