That's the view of new St Pat's president Graham Ward who is looking to put the pieces together in order to improve the club's Group 10 premier league performances next season.

At Sunday's annual general meeting Ward was elected to role he last held in 2016, taking over from Dave Chapman who stepped down to focus on family and work.

The club had a mixed year in 2019 as their league tag and under 18s teams enjoyed premiership seasons but the premier league squad fell well short of expectations.

Pat's won just four of their 16 games in the top grade this year so it's clear something needs to change.

The committee have identified one area to hone in on: Money.

"Our league tag and junior teams kept the club's head above water. With first grade next year we're hoping for a lot more success," Ward said.

"We've changed our payment structure this year. All players are pretty much on the same money.

"We just see the money in country rugby league getting out of hand so we're setting up a platform that clubs in smaller towns, if they can adopt the same principles, can even the load a little bit.

"We have a win and draw payment but a minimum pay for a loss."

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The idea to change the payment structure has been in the works since the middle of this year's season, where things started to take a turn for the worse.

"We probably went over and above this year, without much success, and we had players leave before the competition started," Ward said.

"Then the biggest loss was Zac Merritt with a broken leg. It took a long time to get the boys back together."

Merritt will be fighting fit as the new captain-coach for 2020. Mick Armstrong has the assistant coach role.

Ward's election to the top job ends Chapman's three year run as president.

Chapman, who oversaw the Saints' move to their new Hereford Street complex, said it was the right time to step down.

"With a young family and new business something had to give. I'm still staying involved with the club, though not in a committee role," Chapman said.

"There's a few new places voted into the committee next season. I'm proud to say that we now have 40 per cent female representation on our executive committee, which is something we've wanted to do for a while and it stems from the success of our senior league tag girls."

Gary Goldsmith reprises his role as secretary while husband and wife Michael and Noelene Mashman fill the treasurer and registrar positions respectively.