THE return of a premiership winning skipper, the recruitment of a Tiger and some rising stars - Bathurst Lady Bushrangers coach Brian Matheson is excited to see how his new-look squad fares in 2020.
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From the line-up which reached last season's AFL Central West grand final against the Bathurst Giants there have been departures, yet the Lady Bushrangers still boast a solid squad.
Central West representative Beth Durham as well as Sonia Horn will remain with the Bushrangers after it was initially thought they would not form part of this season's line up.
Former premiership winning skipper Kelsey Richards is back, while Matheson also has another proven leader in his ranks.
"Nita Noble has come over from Orange, she coached the Orange women's side last year. I think she'll be very handy out there on the field and she's obviously very experienced," the coach said.
"But for me the most exciting thing about our team is that we have some good, young, juniors coming through ... they'll really give us a lot of run."
While one of those young talents - Elly Rudd - dislocated her finger last weekend and is currently sidelined, both Tula Foster and Toomkia Speers are exciting prospects.
They will face a stern first up test with the Lady Bushrangers to meet the Giants in Saturday's season opener at George Park 1.
The Giants won all but one match last season - a 15-all draw with the Lady Bushrangers.
"We've got good numbers and everyone is keen, we've had good numbers on the training paddock. Obviously training is a bit different to game day, but we are definitely a lot better off than we were last year going into round one, we're training at a higher level, so I'm really excited about it," Matheson said.
"It's probably not a bad thing for us to come up against the Giants in our first game, it will be a bit of a starting point to see where we are at, see how competitive we'll be.
"Obviously the Giants are going to be the team to beat, they are the premiers from last year, so we'll know where we stand straight from round one."
