Tiegan Kavanagh leading from front in dual cricketing roles with Nirranda and Geelong this season

It's one of the key reasons why the now Warrnambool-based athlete is already making a name for herself as an admired and respected leader both on and off the field.

A passion for cricket runs deep through her veins and she's now working hard to give back to the future generation of cricketers coming through the region.

This season, she is vice-captain of Nirranda's division two men's side in the Warrnambool and District Cricket Association (WDCA) while also serving as captain of Geelong's women's Premier cricket team.

Before making the move to Warrnambool from the Central Coast in October 2021, Kavanagh made history in 2020 as the first female player to play NSW Central Coast men's first grade and played years of NSW Premier Cricket first XI to great success.

On a representative level, the right-armer has played for NSW Country and the ACT underage team.

She told The Standard the opportunity to take on the unique challenge at Geelong - which sees the south-west hub at Hamilton mixing with the Geelong-based players - was something she was relishing.

"There's so much young talent down at Geelong which is exciting," she said.

"I've never really been a senior player in a team before so to have the opportunity to lead the girls, knowing I was once in that position is an honour. It's unreal.

"Having Steph (Townsend) as one of the coaches is a great help and Renee Cox as the other captain is awesome, she's been with the group a few years so having her beside me is great.

"It's really unique, I haven't really experienced anything like it before. When I was back in Sydney, it was either you trained in Sydney or didn't at all and because I was playing men's cricket I didn't train in Sydney.

"At the start of the season I hadn't met any of the girls until round one, so it's very unique but it all works really well."

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Kavanagh led Nirranda on-field in the only WDCA match to be played this season so far with skipper Chris Haberfield unavailable and guided the Knights to a strong win against Wesley Yambuk. The quick snared 3-18 to lead from the front with the new-ball.

She said the opportunity to work alongside partner Steph Townsend as senior coach at Nirranda and the other core leaders was rewarding.

"I've got a lot of experience playing for a long period of time, and I think the boys have certainly got a lot of respect for not only me, but Steph as well," she said.

"Steph has been around Nirranda a lot longer than me, but leading the boys on the field is great. I like to tell 'Bucko' (Chris Haberfield) I'm the only winning captain out there this season because he hasn't unfortunately been able to captain a game.

"I've told him I'm one-from-one so it's a bit of a running joke but it keeps the banter going which is great.

"I'm excited to hopefully get back on the field this weekend and work with 'Bucko' and get a win against the Titans."

Cricket doesn't sleep off the field either, with Kavanagh launching the TAS Cricket Academy in Warrnambool alongside Townsend, designed to offer private coaching sessions.

"We started it just before the season started actually," she said.

"We were thinking about things we could do to bring to the area and there's not a lot of coaching opportunities for kids and adults down here.

"We've taken the Koroit under 15s and we use that to expand our coaching abilities because we have high level coaching experience.

"It's something Steph has wanted to give back to the area she's from and both of us growing up never had the opportunity to even really play, let alone be coached by females so to help grow the female game is something we're trying to do."

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