Inside midfielder Jesse Margosis, key defender Tim Doyle and centre half-forward Andrew Emery have all played for the Bulldogs before to various degrees, while young utility Alex Smith has also come on board.

Margosis, Emery and Smith have all made the move from Lockhart, while Doyle returns after three seasons at Murray League side Marwala.

Margosis and Doyle both played for Turvey Park in last year's shortened AFL Riverina Championship while Emery, 25, is back after about six seasons away from the club.

Bulldogs coach Michael Mazzocchi targeted the players to address key deficiencies in their team, with height and more size around the ball highlighted as areas to fix.

Margosis will also be a co-assitant coach alongside Tom Yeats this season.

"He'll be an inside mid for us and add some experience around the ball," Mazzocchi said.

"He's got really good leadership qualities and impressed everyone at the club when he played here in 2020.

"Losing 'Sadds' (Andrew Saddler), he's going to give us a midfield leader.

"Tim's another big body that we lacked, and a really good competitor, and Andrew was a real target of ours because he's a tall centre half forward.

"With (last season's centre half forward) Mitch Ward retiring he'll fill that spot really well and give us a key forward to launch to.

"Alex also came through our 17s, they're all ex-Turvey players which will help with the points system."

Margosis, 28, said stepping up as assistant coach was a natural progression after playing in strong teams under good coaches through his career.

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"I've had a couple of really good coaches and the way Zocc goes about it I think it will be the same," he said.

"I'm getting around that age where you only have so many years as a player, and the next step is to step up as a coach. It's a stepping stone and to see if I enjoy it or not.

"I'll give them a bit of experience and help them out there in the midfield. Hopefully we can go alright."

Doyle, 32, will be a valuable pillar up back, especially given young defender Will O'Connor looks set to link with North Albury.

"I was just ready to come back," he said.

"I've still been training here while I was playing down there (at Marwala). I was always going to play back here at some point.

"The way the team finished off this year, it should lead pretty well into this year."

Emery came through the Bulldogs juniors and is now at an age where he's ready to reach his peak.

"They needed some taller guys to help in the forward line, so hopefully I can help them there," he said.

"I thought I had a pretty good season this year (at Lockhart), but it was hard because we had three key forwards.

"I wanted to get back to playing out of Wagga with the travel, it gets a bit taxing after a while."

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