Wesley Yambuk and Southern Titans merge for 2023/24 WDCA season

Wesley Yambuk and Southern Titans agreed to join forces on Tuesday night and will compete as Wesley Yambuk Titans in division one, two and three competitions throughout the season.

Wesley Yambuk's Jason Mungean described the move as a "temporary merger" rather than a full merger which opened the door for both clubs to continue as separate entities next season.

"If both clubs can recruit more players and stand alone next year, we'll do that but if not we'll look at long term," he said. "It gives us options."

Southern Titans president James Cole agreed with Mungean.

"For this season we've just decided it was in the best interest for both of us to combine our playing groups so we can field some competitive sides," he said.

Mungean, who will coach the division one team, said discussions started last Friday after learning the Titans were in a similar situation player-wise.

"We (Wesley Yambuk) had (division) one, two and three but as it was we were never going to be able to field enough players to fill those and Titans had twos and threes and they were right on the border line as well so it made sense to combine and make it a bit easier for everyone," he said.

Cole said the Southern Titans didn't want to put their "head in the sand" about their current situation.

"Speaking to Wesley, they were honest and realistic about where they were and so were we," Cole said. "It wasn't a hard conversation at all.

"We can't make no bones about the fact we're suffering through a bit of a shortage of players, you can't hide from that."

Both clubs are expected to retain their separate committees, with a subcommittee - featuring three representatives from both clubs - to run the combined entity.

The division one team, which will be captained by Wesley Yambuk's Zavier Mungean, starts its season with an one-day away match against Russells Creek on Saturday and will feature players from both clubs.

"We probably had seven or eight division one players and they've got four or five players capable of playing division one," Mungean said. "There'll be a mix there and it will be the same throughout the grades."

Division one is expected to play most of its home games at Walter Oval, division two will play at Jones Oval, while division three will be split across three hard wicket pitches at their disposal.

They will hold their first training run as a combined unit on Thursday night at Walter Oval, before alternating training at both clubs home grounds.

Mungean encouraged anyone looking for a game of cricket to get in contact.

WDCA general manager Nick Ansell believed the move was a positive outcome for both clubs.

"Both identified numbers would be an issue for them," he said. "The association absolutely commends them for the decision they've been able to come to.

"As a result we think it's going to make the competition stronger and result in them being more competitive and hopefully it can help to foster interest in the game and sport locally."

Ansell said the temporary merge was reminiscent of arrangements where some clubs had to combine junior squads to field teams.

"The beauty of this situation is it will allow both clubs to look at where they are at and have a really analytical look at where they sit and they can decide the best way to move forward whether that is merging together full-time or going their separate ways," he said.

"They have six months now to discuss that sort of stuff and work through it and come to a decision that will be the right one."

Ansell said the division two fixture had been "rejigged" due to it originally holding a bye.

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