Melisha Deshapriya will debut for the Deni Rhinos A-grade side this weekend.
The Deniliquin Rhinos 2026/27 season is here with the Murray Valley Cricket Association fixtures starting Saturday.
Hold tight - we’re checking permissions before loading more content
The Rhinos will again have two senior teams competing, one in A-grade and one in B-grade.
Both teams are at home this weekend with the A-grade side hosting Katamatite starting at 12.30pm while the B-grade team play Finley from 1pm also at Memorial Park.
It is also the first match for the club without the club’s inaugural A-grade premiership coach and 2025 club person of the year John Arthur in the main coaching role after more than a decade.
The club announced the signing of new senior coach Brad Todd in May.
Todd is a premiership captain of the Deni Rhinos and a Deniliquin and District Cricket Association Junior Cricket Club premiership player.
He was part of several successful Bendigo Country Week teams, and won multiple club and league best and fairest awards throughout his career.
This goes along with the other May signing of Scott Vesty as game day coach, and mentor for the B-grade side.
Recently relocating back to Deniliquin, Vesty last took the field as a captain/coach of Mathoura’s 2012 A-grade premiership side in the DDCA.
Todd said the teams are looking forward to round one.
“We have been training for a few weeks now, so are prepared as best we can be - apart from having any practice matches in our lead up.
“It’ll be good to have both A and B-grade at home for the first game to kick off our season.”
Todd said the A-grade side will be looking towards their youth and inclusions to the side to help the team start well.
“We will just be looking to start well either with the bat and or ball and see what happens.
“We have had a few changes with personnel from last year, so hopefully we can start our season with how we performed at the end of last year.
Respected long-time player Brad Todd has taken on the senior coaching role for the Rhinos this year.
Photo by
Wayne Bradley
“It’ll be good to see what one of our new recruits, Melisha Deshapriya, can do in a game based scenario.
“We’ve only seen him in the nets at this stage, so we are looking forward to that.
“We are also looking for some of our younger guys to step up and take on a bigger role in our A-grade this year.
“I haven’t heard too much about Katamatite at this point, so not to sure what to expect from them.
“No doubt they will be ready to go, so we need to make sure we perform first up at home and start the season with a win.”
Deni’s A-grade side made it to the semi final last season, but the match again Cobram - eventual premiers - was abandoned through a wash out.
The side is keen to get into a rhythm early and improve on last year’s efforts.
“Each year is different and teams turnover players a fair bit now with imports, so it will be hard to know where we stand until we get a few games into the season and see some results,” Todd said.
“From a few whispers around, a couple of clubs have recruited heavily.
“It will be interesting to see where we can put ourselves this year, and hopefully, we can end up in a good spot come January/February and compete for finals.
“But that’s a bit too far ahead, so we will just look towards Katty this weekend, and hopefully, we can come away with two wins at home, and with B-grade playing Finley as well.”
Both grades will have a similar game format to last season, with the same seven teams competing in the highest grade.
They begin with nine rounds of one day, 45 over matches.
Five two day matches will be held towards the end of the season, before finals.
Meanwhile, B-grade has 10 teams this season and will see 17 rounds of one day matches.
Junior competitions in the MVCA begin next week, with the Rhinos entering an under-15s side into the seven team grade.
They start with a two-dayer on Saturday, October 17 from 8.30am. The Rhinos host Tocumwal at Memorial Park.
15°C