East Wagga Kooringal youngsters Holly Holt, Alex Read, Maddi McPherson and Zahli Meriton will make their senior debuts when newcomers the Hawks play their first game at Narrandera on Friday night.

All four have come through the clubs' junior system, and the decision to scrap the Snowy Mountain Bears moniker to the East Wagga-Kooringal Hawks has come in time for them to continue wearing the brown and yellow this year.

The Hawks were due to make their debut at home against Griffith in the opening round, but the Swans' forfeit has delayed it by a week.

Hawks coach Ken McPherson, who also coached the Bears for the past two years, said it's an exciting formative period for the local women's game.

"The girls were pretty disappointed (with the forfeit) but we're still growing women's football, you've got to take the good, bad and the ugly during this growth period when we're trying to get it established," McPherson said.

"A majority of the Snowy Mountains players are in the side but with our Hawks juniors coming through, we thought it was time to change the name.

"The benefit is we've got four of our junior youth girls playing in the open women's competition now, so we've got that pathway there for our kids.

"To have four girls come into our senior team is a good story. The youth girls has been going for three years and to have four East Wagga girls come into the women's comp shows it's working well."

The Hawks have brought in talent from a number of other sports into their ranks to complement the more experienced footballers in the squad.

"We've got a great variety from netball to soccer and touch, a lot of different backgrounds. There's so many women really wanting to play the game," McPherson said.

"We've got the two Finemore girls in (talented netballers) Hannah and Ella. We've got some good sporting girls, it's a matter of how they jel together."

Narrandera will be looking to bounce back after going down 9.18 (72) to 1.0 (6) in their opening match in the competition against North Wagga last week.

"I was out there to have a look and North Wagga were very impressive, they're a very good side," McPherson said.

In the round's other match Griffith Swans host defending champions Charles Sturt University at Griffith Ex-Services Club.

FRIDAY'S GAMES: Griffith Swans v CSU at Griffith Ex-Services Club (7.30pm); North Wagga Saints v Brookdale Bluebells at Apex Park (6.30pm); Narrandera Eagles v East Wagga-Kooringal Hawks at Narrandera Sportsground (7.30pm).

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