The sole change comes in the boys under 18s role where Darren Small steps up after coaching the 2020 under 16s side, while Zac Merritt (premier league), Tyson Medlyn (first division), Mick Armstrong (senior league tag) and Meredith Jones (under 18s league tag) all return to their same positions.

All grades have been busy getting into the swing of pre-season, especially the two men's senior sides who have several events to target across the next month and a half.

"It's exciting. We've been getting good numbers to training, with a good mix of the younger and older fellas. Everyone's loving throwing the footy around again," Merritt said.

"I think the first few weeks back felt weird, after losing last season with COVID, but we've been back into the swing of things after Australia Day and the feeling is starting to come back that footy's just around the corner.

"We have the nines this weekend, and we're taking a strong squad into that, and then the Bathurst Knockout which we'll be targeting as well.

"Following that we also have the Forbes trial. We're keeping it nice and simple as we build into the season."

Merritt said it's great to see last year's coaching staff remain almost identical to the 2020 collective.

"We have the exact same lineup as last year except in the 18s where Daz is taking over. We're happy to keep things the same as we build into the season and everyone knows what our expectations are as a club," he said.

"We had a massive pre-season at the start of last year before COVID happened but our 18s had a great year. They just missed out on the final of the Western Youth League. We'll all hopefully be there or thereabouts this year."

Small takes the place of the 2019 premiership-winning coach Kev Grimshaw.

The under 18s were one of the lucky sides who still got to enjoy a taste of rugby league action in last year's COVID-affected season, producing a big winning run through the Western Youth League before having their campaign stopped by Dubbo CYMS.

The new Saints mentor will still be working with many players he's had plenty of experience with in under 16s, but he's keen to see what they can bring to the table in a new age group.

"It's big shoes to fill with the coaching this team has had in the past. We have a good young squad and we should hopefully go alright," Small said.

"A lot of the senior group went on to reserve grade and first grade from last year's team. We'll see what we've got for this year but at this stage it looks like we're still going to have a good squad.

"At the moment we're still seeing who's who, where everyone wants to play and where we can fit people in. We've had a couple of guys come across from rugby.

"Some of the younger guys from 18s last year are back again and we've had a lot of our 16s step up as well."

St Pat's have put the call out to any juniors interested in playing under 18s to take part in Tuesday and Thursday training sessions at 6.30pm at Jack Arrow Sporting Complex during the pre-season.