After an extensive preseason, Wangaratta Dragons Hockey Club are ready to take on the region, with the 2026 Hockey Albury Wodonga season set to commence this weekend.

From Sunday, 12 April, the Dragons senior squads will launch into the home and away season, vying for that elusive premiership glory.

Numbers are surging at the club, with president Daniel Warner confirming Wangaratta will field a record-breaking five senior teams across the various HAW grades, including two in the division three men’s competition.

“I guess it’s based on previous success over the years, we try to make the club attractive and a family-friendly environment, and I guess that reputation’s starting to spread,” he said.

“There are people coming out of the woodwork everywhere, it’s absolutely great.

“We’ve put in a division two women’s team again this year, we missed out last year because we didn’t have enough women, but we’ve put in a division two and division three women’s team.

“I guess one of the advantages of having two division three men’s teams is we can generate interest and bring talent through.

“For the first couple of rounds until we get them settled, we can pick and choose teams who work well together, and with that, you can put together two really competitive teams.

“I’ve put in a request to the association that when they’re playing each other in Wangaratta the women can play either before or after us, and we can make a day of it.

“With Mat Russel coaching our division two men’s team, he took us to the finals last year, he is quite talented and puts together a really good division two team who work well together.

“It’s looking good for this season, but we’ll see how we go.”

After the success of last season, including a flag in the division three women’s comp and a preliminary final appearance for the division two men, there’s a sense the club can take the next step and take out premierships in multiple grades.

The club won’t be firing on all cylinders until the juniors commence the following week, but for now, there are five scintillating matches of hockey to kick off the season.

Warner said after such a prolonged build-up, he was looking forward to just getting on the field.

“We’ve been going since the end of January or early February, we’ve had something or other going on, trying to get people organised and prepared,” he said.

“For the committee, it’s panic stations getting all the final preparations sorted like organising uniforms and teams and all of that sort of stuff.

“Everyone’s pretty excited to see the start of the season.”

It all starts on Sunday, with the division two men taking on Wombats at Wodonga from 11am, with the division two and three women in action at the same facility from 12.30pm and the division three Green Dragons men from 2pm.

The division three Yellow Dragons take on Magpies at Albury Hockey Centre at 3.30pm.

In other club news, the Dragons’ $2000 cash draw fundraiser will be finishing up on Saturday, 11 April.

Tickets are $20, with one lucky winner walking away with the whole prize pot.

For more information about the club’s fundraiser, and for full senior season fixtures, visit the Wangaratta Dragons Hockey Club on Facebook.