HE has lost a host of talented players from the squad which fell one win short of last season's Central West AFL grand final, but Bathurst Giants coach Mark Kennedy still has a warning for his 2020 rivals.
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"We love the underdog tag - never write us off," he said.
Kennedy has returned to once again coach this Giants and this season it will be in the new Premier Division after the league re-introduced a second-tier senior men's competition.
The Giants will be pitted against the Bathurst Bushrangers and Orange Tigers - last season's grand finalists - as well as the Dubbo Demons in the top grade.
Having lost the likes of Paul Jenkins, Dave Manning, Steve Yiv, Reilly Mitchell, Aiden Macauley, Nic Broes and Mitch Taylor from the squad which reached the 2019 preliminary final will make Kennedy's job tough, but he is no stranger to rebuilding.
He has helped young, emerging talents transition into key players in the top grade all through his coaching career.
"Over the years I've done it three times now, you just redefine what success is. For us now, it's about giving people a good opportunity to play AFL," Kennedy said.
"Young blokes like Zac Yandle coming through and Cooper Brien, they've been playing really well in the juniors now for us for a few years and they're really going to step up and play a more senior role."
Kennedy, who has coached the Giants' senior side since its inception, said "having a go" will be the focus in 2020.
He hopes it is an attitude which makes his side competitive, but knows favouritism will lie with his rivals.
"While I think last year was a really good chance to make the grand final for us, the stars just didn't align, we just didn't have the players to go up there to Orange and play the preliminary final and win that," he said.
"But we've lost a heap of players this year, so it's just refocus now."
It will be a different look line up for the Giants women as well, with a number of last season's undefeated premiership winning players departing.
But coach Liz Kennedy, who has guided the Giants women to back-to-back grand finals, has returned as mentor.
Like her husband Mark, she knows season 2020 will be about urging returning players to step up and unlocking the potential in her new recruits.
"The success we've had has been great, but it's back to square one. We've probably lost five or six of our women, we've lost [full forward] Danita Lane who has gone down to Mildura," she said.
"This year for me is about building the profile of women's AFL. I want the girls that have now been in the team for a couple of years to take more of a leadership role on and I want to be able to develop not just our club, but women playing AFL."
Kennedy will get the chance to see her players in action at the Newtown Breakaways Women's AFLX Challenge next Sunday and while she knows they face quality opposition, she's excited to see how they perform.
The coach is particularly keen to see how new recruit, star netball Olivia Johnson does.
"We have picked up Olivia Johnson, who hasn't played AFL before ... but she's going to be a good, a very, very bright prospect," she said.
