The East Wagga-Kooringal coach says he will head into 2021 recharged and raring to go after an enforced winter without football.

After the disappointment of this year's stop-start-stop season, Hard said it won't be difficult to get excited again.

It's why he was keen to push on into a fourth year at Gumly.

"I wouldn't be doing it if I wasn't looking forward to it. It's obviously been an indifferent year so we've had time to sit back, reflect and recharge the batteries," Hard said.

"As we all know, there's bigger things to life than footy. But in saying that it fills up a great part of our life so I'm looking forward to getting back around the boys and trying to build on what we started this year."

He said it has been a challenging year.

"We've all just got to learn from it and hopefully stick together," he said.

"We've realised there are bigger things out there in the world but you know how much footy means and how much enjoyment we get out of having a kick and a run around with our mates."

Having started at Coolamon in 2002, Hard has been coaching for the best part of two decades.

He's taken the Northern Jets (2007) and Coolamon (2012) to premierships, and coached the Riverina League representative side.

Now, feeling refreshed and with the support of his family, he said the desire to coach again next year is as strong as ever.

East Wagga-Kooringal bowed out in the semi-finals in Hard's first year at the club then last year recovered from a big injury toll and a form slump to be the first team through to the grand final.

There, a second quarter lapse against North Wagga effectively cost them their chance but they had high hopes of making amends in 2020 before COVID-19 wreaked its havoc.

"We were very happy with the group we put together this year, they were training really well, gelling really well and the signs were positive so we thought we were tracking pretty well to be a force," he said.

"So our main focus is to keep the group together and hopefully we can re-challenge in 2021."

He's keeping an eye on Hawks players who have gone to the AFL Riverina Championship, including Tim Smith at Mangoplah-Cookardinia United-Eastlakes, Alex Rogers at Turvey Park, Brocke Argus at Wagga Tigers and Jeremy Piercy at Osborne.

"We've got about six or seven having a run at different clubs so I'm trying to keep in touch and follow them and get out where I can to have a look," he said.

"I think we've got a very good relationship with the players who have gone across on COVID permits so they get cleared back to East Wagga and we're confident we'll retain them.

"They're conversations we'll continue to have but we hope to retain the large majority of our playing list and hopefully top up in a few areas."