It is, however, a little unusual for league tag sides to join in as well.

But, in a sign of how serious the Orange Hawks girls are taking the 2017 Group 10 league tag season, Marty Lyden’s outfit kicked off it’s pre-season in November – four months ago.

That’s back when Willie Heta kicked things off with the club’s premier league players.

“I took over the coaching job mid-way through last season and wanted to make things a bit more professional for the girls,” Marty Lyden said.

“They’re really enjoying it and we’ve been training now for as long as the blokes have been.”

The two bluettes get their first shot to prove the hard pre-season slog has all been worth it this weekend, too, with the Young Cherrypickers League Tag carnival kicking off on Saturday.

Lyden’s girls aren’t going down there to simply make up the numbers either.

“I think we can (win it),” he said, Hawks have drawn Group 9 club Gundagai, Woodbridge Cup’s Boowora and the Group 20 galloping greens, Leeton in Saturday’s pool stage.

“There’s going to be a lot of good teams down there, but the fitness of these girls will be as good as any side there.”

The early kick-off – Hawks are the only Group 10 club headed to Young – is designed to get the two blues’ run at this winter’s premiership off to a flying start.

Hawks exited last year’s league tag title race after a thrilling 1-0 loss to Orange CYMS in the elimination semi-final in week one.

Then CYMS gun Bec Ford booted the decisive point in that sudden-death thriller – Ford will play for the two blues this season.

She’ll be joined by more quality too, with Prue Hancock, Amanda Livingstone and Parkes Spacecats premiership winner Elle-J Harris all linking with Hawks for 2017.

“We’ve kept just about everyone we had in last year’s side as well, which is good,” Lyden said.

The Young league tag carnival kicks off at 9.10am on Saturday, with finals on Sunday.

Hawks’ first game is against Gundagai from 10am.

After Young this weekend, Hawks will head to Canowindra for the annual Western Challenge League Tag carnival at Tom Clyburn Oval, with 18 teams from across the region entering the 2017 competition.