WAGGA Tigers coach Olivia Tilyard knew they couldn't be top dog forever, but has backed the club's next wave of young talent to to put them back in flag contention.
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The Tigers run of three straight Riverina League premierships came to a halt last year when they were ousted from the finals in straight sets by eventual champions Mangoplah-Cookardinia United-Eastlakes and Coolamon.
Tilyard doesn't expect too may new faces and has retained the majority of last year's core in herself, sister Georgia, captain Jess Allen, Maddie Kelly, Asha Murphy and Leila Wadley.
She believes most of the improvement will come from the younger players drafted into the team after the Tigers won last year's B grade final, and made the A-reserves grand final.
"After three years of being in it (grand final) it was a bit of a step back. But we're not too fussed about it because we're a really young club, it was bound to come," she said.
"When we were knocked out I was pretty disappointed but then I thought 'hang on, we can't expect to win this every year'.
"There's a couple of young girls I'm looking to bring up, we'll see how the trials pan out in a few weeks and go from there.
"We're probably looking for another shooter and another defender, we'll see what's out there."
For the second straight year the Tigers will start their campaign with a stand-alone clash with Turvey Park on Good Friday, with the rest of the round one fixtures to be played the following week.
"Last year was the first year (we played on Good Friday), so everyone must have liked it if we're doing it again," she said.
"It's really good to see the whole league growing. The bottom and top teams were a lot closer in quality last year than they were the year before."
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