Coughlan has always been a fierce competitor who loves to win and while he has impressed in terms of his personal performances since taking on the role of captain, Redbacks as a whole have not been as consistent.

They placed seventh in season 2019-20 as the BOIDC competition was revived after a 13-year hiatus, while last summer Redbacks finished fifth.

Coughlan is determined this season will see Redbacks play finals cricket, but he knows that banking points early will be critical.

"We're going to give it a red hot crack this year," he said.

"We've got to get more early wins, that's our problem, we take a little bit to get going.

"The comp is not won at the start of the year, but we've got to get into the finals to give it a shake. We come home with a red hot run at the end of each season and it looks like we're coming good, but then we get a wash-out or three-run loss or something unlucky happens.

"Like last season we had a tie at the end, we would've made the finals if we'd won that outright, just little things like that.

"But we'll take luck out of the equation this year and give it a red hot crack."

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LAST season Redbacks boasted the competition's leading wicket-taker in Clint Moxon - he snared 30 scalps - while he, Jarrod Urza and Ben Orme all managed five-wicket hauls during their campaign.

That trio are back again, Coughlan and Tom Lynch also form part of the attack, while Redbacks have added a new face to their line-up who is could take the new ball.

After impressing in the Gulgong District Cricket Association first grade competition last season for Goolma, young gun Connor Whale joins Redbacks.

Last season as he stepped up to first grade Whale took 18 wickets at an average of 12.28 and best figures of 4-45. He also played for the Gulgong DCA representative side in the Rod Hartas Trophy.

"He's coming across so I'll be looking to get some overs out of him," Coughlan said.

"With Moxo and Ormey and Tom Lynch, he'll strengthen that area. We should have a pretty good bowling attack this year."

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SCORING runs - while Redbacks' have on paper had teams capable of putting on big scores since returning to the BOIDC ranks, Coughlan feels that potential has not been realised.

The skipper himself has been solid - he scored 440 runs in BOIDC last season - and found good support from Mark Day, but if Redbacks are to play finals cricket they need more players to contribute.

"It's sort of been our Achilles heel the last few years, it's been myself getting around 500, Daysie getting 400 and the next best is about 180, so I'm hoping for a couple of boys to stand up this year and give it a red hot shake," Coughlan said.

"A lot of the times we lose games by not a big margin, so I think an extra couple of hundred runs from the top order boys will be crucial."

While John Rudge has retired, after scoring a huge amount of runs during his junior career for Bathurst District teams and Centennials Bulls, Blake Kruezberger has joined Redbacks.

Injury may see him miss the opening rounds.

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WHILE Orange City will start the new season as defending premiers, in Coughlan's mind it is the team they beat in the 2020-21 decider who are favourites - St Pat's Old Boys.

The Saints finished as minor premiers last season, suffering just one loss in the regular rounds, and will be boosted by the return of Nic Broes from the ACT Premier Cricket competition.

"Pat's are favourites I'd say because they've got their super stars back ... Broesy and Mitchy Taylor are back," Coughlan said.

"They'd be the team to beat, but now they're like the Redbacks of old, everyone wants to turn up and beat them. So they can have fun with that tag and we'll be looking to beat them every time we meet them and so will everyone else, they've got the target on their head."

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