The club has named its leadership group for the upcoming Barwon Women's Cricket Competition campaign.

Veteran opener Nicole Edwards will return as skipper after leading the Bolts to two grand final appearances in the Cricket Victoria north-west one day and Twenty20 competitions last summer.

She will be joined at the helm by Jenna Fowlie and youngsters Hayley Fleming and Imogen O'Brien. All have displayed leadership qualities since joining the club.

Emily McNeight has been named as player/coach.

READ MORE

"Nicole has a bubbly personality and worked very well with coaching staff last year," McNeight said.

"With her leading, it will give the younger girls a chance to grow into leadership roles suited to them.

"Imogen and Hayley are both younger players and there is potential for them to lead the club in the future."

McNeight, who was recovering from a broken foot most of last season, took on the senior coaching role a fortnight ago. She took over from Jeremy Byrne, who has stepped aside for personal reasons.

"I'm definitely excited to grow the club and continue the work that Jeremy and the committee have done," McNeight said.

"With all the new girls coming through, it's exciting to see where our cricket will go."

The Bolts fell just short of premiership success in the 2019-20 season. The club lost by 23 runs to the Greenvale Kangaroos in the Cricket Victoria North-West T20 final, before losing to Greenvale again in the one day format.

The competition was primarily based in Melbourne and is uncertain to go ahead this season due to COVID-19.

Instead, The Bolts will look to go that one step further in the Barwon comp this summer.

"Every year you lose players and gain players and there is always that little mixture of change," McNeight said

"But I definitely think we've got the potential and the girls that can get us there."

The upcoming campaign will mark the first as a senior coach for McNeight. Having coached at a junior level, she said coaching was in her blood.

"I used to coach junior cricket at Ballarat-Redan and my dad has always been involved in coaching and leadership," she said.

Late last week Cricket Victoria outlined its return to training and play guidelines, which sees a range of strict protocols in place for the 2020-21 season.