The Saints, along with CSU and Temora, were the clear standouts in last year's Farrer League competition, but the finals were ultimately cancelled.

North Wagga began the year in strong fashion with 55-38 win at Northern Jets on Saturday, despite a slow start to the match.

They should get stronger in coming weeks give former players Tess Hamblin (centre court) and Tara Horne (defender) were unavailable for the season opener after returning to the club.

"I was really happy with it. It's been hard to do proper training together with people being sick, other commitments and COVID getting around at the moment," Hogg said.

"We had a bit of a slow start and Jets were quite strong, but once we got a feel for each other we got away from them, I was happy considering we hadn't played for a while."

The Saints have retained most of last year's core and added Hamblin, Horne and another defender Keely Alexander from last year's B-grade team.

"There's still some fire left in our bellies, that's for sure. Hopefully we can be successful again like last year," Hogg said.

CSU and Temora are going to be strong again I think, but Coleambally have a few new recruits as well. (Former Coolamon player) Sarah Hooper is out there (as coach) and it feels like you can't underestimate them these days."

In other matches CSU also sent an early statement with a 68-38 rout of the Blues, Barellan were too strong for The Rock-Yerong Creek 69-25 and Marrar fended off East Wagga Kooringal 43-25.

Marrar coach Mat Scofield said the Bombers have a new defender in Teagan Smith and have lured Elyse Dore across from Mangoplah-Cookardinia United-Eastlakes, but neither played in round one.

"We had a couple of girls out too so it was good to get the win on the board," Scofield said.

"I was happy with how we kept coming back to our game plan, and it's only the first game of the season.

"There's going to be rusty patches, but I was proud of how we settled and were able to string four or five goals together at times."

OTHER NEWS

"We have North Wagga next week and I saw they had a win on the weekend. That's always a tough game, but we'll keep building.

"It doesn't really make any difference who we play week to week, we work on what we're doing and the little things we're trying to improve."

In other recruitment news, Temora has signed 2019 joint Riverina League player of the year Hannah Finemore from Collingullie-Glenfield Park.

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