Your look at Bathurst's senior teams for the 2024 AFL Central West season

For the first time ever Bathurst Giants come into the senior men's competition as the defending champions and will do everything in their power to become two-time winners by the end of 2024.

They'll expect a strong challenge not only from cross-city rivals Bushrangers - who are aiming to continue their perfect streak of grand final appearances since their foundation - but also the Dubbo Demons and Orange Tigers.

The Giants women will be hungry to get back to the top of their competition after narrowly going down to the Demons in last year's decider, while the Bushrangers women will want to build on a promising 2023 season.

Here's a look at the Bathurst squads ahead of the opening round...

2023 record: Champions (14 wins, one loss in regular season)

First five rounds: Demons (A), Bushrangers (H), Tigers (H), Demons (H), Bushrangers (A)

The Giants will feel that the 'defending champion' tag has a nice ring to it, so they're certain to come out firing in the opening rounds to try and cement their place as favourites.

The team have a young player-coach duo of Sam Sloan and Jacob Molkentin for the new season and the team have managed to retain their youthful core of players from the premiership campaign.

Sloan said he's excited to see what the team are capable of in 2024.

"We've loved coaching so far and the boys have been really supportive," he said.

"It's been a great challenge but we're loving it."

Losing the likes of star pairing Mitch Taylor and Luke Macauley will no doubt sting but depth certainly won't be an issue at Giants.

"We have no pressure on ourselves at the moment. We're off to Dubbo in round one, and we know they're good up there, so we need to take two good teams," Sloan said.

"We'll be doing that. Our first grade team looks great and we've got a lot of depth. I think the 16-a-side really helps this year because the fringe players drop off and go into ressies, which strengthens them.

"We've got a very young team. Our age bracket is between 18 and 24 mainly. The 16-a-side creates a lot more space and that should benefit us.

"There's a couple of ressies guys who have been training the house down this pre-season. Jordy Collins has had a big pre-season and Harley Spice played some first grade last year and he's looking really good as well."

2023 record: Runners-up (11 wins, four losses in regular season)

First five rounds: Tigers (H), Giants (A), Demons (A), Tigers (A), Giants (H)

Bushrangers took down rivals Giants in the first derby of the 2023 season but from that point on they never had an answer for the eventual premiers.

However, a couple of new recruits and an encouraging pre-season have the club feeling positive for what's to come in a new year.

New first grade coach Alex Sparks said the team can't wait to start their mission to get back to the top.

"Everyone's just really excited to start. We've had some great pre-season matches which has helped dust some of the cobwebs off," he said.

"We're now the ones chasing to get the trophy back, so that's a bit of extra motivation, but we're an experienced team and we know what it's all about.

"We'll go out the and take care of our own thing and the wins will take care of themselves."

Bushrangers welcome Tigers to George Park 2 for the opening round this Saturday.

Sparks said it'll be interesting to see how both the young and new players fare.

"A lot of our side is similar to what we've had over the previous years but one thing I'm excited to see is a couple of our junior players coming through, like Harry Knight and Tom Nakad stepping up," he said.

"We do have a couple of good ins. Tyson Gentle has come from Wagga and he's a very go in for us and he's going to add a lot for us."

2023 record: Runners-up (10 wins, two losses in regular season)

First five rounds: Demons (A), Bushrangers (H), Tigers (A), Bye, Cowra (H)

It always felt like the 2023 women's premiership could have come down to a coin flip when trying to pick between Bathurst Giants and Dubbo Demons last year.

Having been on the wrong end of the grand final result last year the Giants will be hungry to surpass their Dubbo rivals while also seeing off the ever-present threat of cross-city rivals Bushrangers.

Giants have slowly built themselves up into a force since their 2018 debut and came up just shy of a fourth straight premiership in last year's grand final defeat.

Katie Kennedy takes over the coaching reins alongside her ongoing captaincy duties.

Kennedy has placed a big emphasis on her team giving it their all while also coming away from training and games feeling positive.

"I don't think we're going to go out there trying to redeem what we've lost but instead focus this year on rebuilding and bringing a bit of fun back into the game," she said.

"We've lost one of our midfielders who has moved over to London while a couple of others have gone off to uni but we've also got new people coming in as well, which is really exciting.

"We've had a little bit of a slow start this year. We weren't sure what we were doing with coaching and it was a little late that I decided to do it.

"We're building momentum at a good time though. We didn't want to start to early and burn ourselves out through the season. We're looking forward to another fun and exciting year."

2023 record: Third (six wins, six losses in regular season)

First five rounds: Tigers (H), Giants (A), Cowra (H), Demons (A), Bye

Bathurst Bushrangers know they've got the capability to trouble any team in the competition on their day, but can they consistently threaten the Giants and Demons over the course of a season?

That's what the Bushrangers are aiming to do, having always proven a cut above the Orange Tigers and Cowra Blues in 2023 but struggling to get the better of the grand finalists.

Bushrangers did come close to their cross-city rivals on a couple of occasions last year and returning coach Pat Fisher said the team have the belief that they can be in the mix this time around.

"We've retained a couple of players and lost a few as well but we're looking great with numbers. We're looking like having 24 players for round one," he said.

"Training has been great. The pre-season feels like it's dragged on for a little bit so I feel like that's got everyone itching to get out there on Saturday.

Fisher said that after a decade of the women's AFL Central West competition it's clear to see how far the game has come.

He said teams are constantly raising the standard with each season that goes by.

"I think every team is going to get stronger and I'm hopeful that's going to be a pretty even comp, which is something that we all want at the end of the day," Fisher said.

"We're going into the 10^th season this year and it's developed so much. We've got the game to where we want it to be in the region and I think the Central West has been such a groundbreaking thing for women's NSW comps."