The Kangaroos have already locked in a new ruckman in Anthony Atkin, a representative player from Newcastle’s Black Diamond League.

President Darryl Harpley indicated there’ll be more to come.

“I think the competition’s going to be a lot stronger because everyone’s recruited and if we add a bit of depth that makes it more competitive as well,” Harpley said.

Atkin was named in the Black Diamond League team of the year and started in the ruck for their representative team.

The 25-year old is a handy addition following the departure of Dominic Joyce, who’s heading home to Ireland, but says the Farrer League is an unknown quantity.

“I think that it's pretty similar to the Black Diamond, they’ve had some good rep matches against each other in the past,” Atkin said.

After moving to Temora earlier this year, he did manage to catch The Rock-Yerong Creek’s grand final victory. 

“It was very ruck-oriented, I thought. It wasn’t an open game, it was very in-and-under with a lot of contests on the ground,” he said.

The Kangaroos also used one of their American recruits, Billy Mallard, in the ruck during the year but the three imports headed home to the US late in the season.

Harpley said the club had no regrets about its American experiment.

“We grabbed those guys because we didn’t really recruit last year,” Harpley said.

The trio signed just a week before the season started, after training with VFL clubs.

“We always knew what it was going to be – they weren’t going to be superstars, but they certainly added something to our team.”