SPRING Gully's balancing act of keeping an eye to both the short and long-term will create a piece of history for the Crows in the Emu Valley Cricket Association this weekend.
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The Crows are the defending EVCA division one premiers and so far in their tilt for back-to-back flags are undefeated through three games.
While the Crows remain firmly in the premiership window this season, they are doing so by blooding youth, with this round's team to feature the debuts of teenage brothers Noah and Jaxon Kelly.
Noah is 17, while Jaxon will become the Crows' youngest division one debutante at the age of just 13.
The Kelly brothers, who joined Spring Gully last season, will debut for the Crows' division one team in their round five match against Sedgwick at home.
Noah is a medium-pace bowler and hard-hitting lower-order batsman; Jaxon is a leg-spinner and at his young age is showing plenty of promise with the bat.
To give some context to the achievement of Jaxon debuting at the age of 13, future Big Bash League player Brayden Stepien was 15 when he played his first division one game for Spring Gully.
"It's really exciting for the club to have Noah and Jaxon debuting together," Spring Gully vice-president Jayden Mannix said on Friday.
"We've had two young guys in the side already this season in Noah Willits and Miller Armstrong, so that will give us four players on Saturday who are 17 and under.
"As a club it's good that we are able to be in the position we are on the ladder (1st), but still being able to get these kids into the side and give them that experience.
"We are in that lucky spot at the moment where we've been able to get the young kids in while winning games at the same time."
Jaxon's leg-spinning ability was on full display last round against Emu Creek in division two when he snared 5-53 off 10.3 overs.
Spring Gully is the only undefeated team in the EVCA's division one competition heading into round five starting Saturday.
The Crows have both the competition's leading run-scorer in Jesse Marciano (238) and leading wicket-takers, with both co-captain Nick Skeen and Beauden Rinaldi having taken 11 each.
The Crows will be warm favourites to continue their unbeaten run against Sedgwick, which is still to win a game.
The match of the round is the tussle at Pearce Reserve between Mandurang (2nd) and United (3rd).
Both the Rangas and Tigers are 3-1 and between them have five players coming off scores of 50-plus last round: Matt Pask (136) and Linton Colclough (78) at Mandurang and Jayde Mullane (111), Mac Whittle (62) and skipper Harry Whittle (50) at United.
In other round five games West Bendigo hosts Axe Creek and Marong meets Emu Creek.
EVCA DIVISION 1 TEAMS:
AXE CREEK: Mark Smith, Joel Bish, Connor Bulger, Mitchell Clark, Neville Clark, Ashley Dixon (c), Blake Hodgskiss, Manish Singh Negi, Nathan Nikolic, Nicholas Ryan, Parminder Singh, Ranjit Singh.
EMU CREEK: not supplied.
MANDURANG: Brannon Stanford, Dylan Achison, James Bailey, Phillip Berry, Linton Colclough, Corey Dickins, Mathew Pask, James Pietromonaco, Bailey Rashleigh, Joel Renton-Keen, Beau Roy-Clements (c), David Becker.
MARONG: Brennan Walters, Duane Anderson, Ashley Bayliss, David Blume, Reuben Cameron, James Falvey, Lachlan Frischke, Andrew Gladstone (c), Brodie Pearce, Amarpreet Singh, Mitch Van Poppel, Thomas Wilson.
SEDGWICK: Hunter Austin, Lucas Baldwin, Sam Brown, Andrew Cussen, James Dempsey, Dustin Elliott, Mitch Hogan, Bailey Ilsley, Alec Robson, Jackson Stagg, Greg Thomas, Jordan Ilsley (c).
SPRING GULLY: not supplied.
UNITED: Luke Price, Dylan Bailie, Mitch Blackman, Fraser Gentry, Joseph Hartney, Tyler James, Zachary Makeham, Ashley Mayo, Jayde Mullane, James Smith, Harry Whittle (c), Mac Whittle.
WEST BENDIGO: Tristan Boykett, Andrew Brown, Gary Singh, Mitchell Harder, Brad Kilcullen, Tarran Kilcullen (c), Dylan Lefevre, Travis O'Connell, Marcus Williamson, Cody Wright.