BOOLARRA coach Damien Meade is hoping for major improvements, with a heavy influx of players including Alex Windsor, Nick Bickerton, Ross Kelly and Brendan Santurini all likely to play seniors.

Andrew Donegan from VAFA club Old Mentonians has also joined the Demons' ranks.

Two of Boolarra's most promising young players, Matt Taylor and James Beamish, were killed in a car crash during summer.

Meade said training numbers in the off-season were much better than previous years.

"If we don't have the injuries we had last year, I think we can go better," Meade said.

Hill End

HILL End, a team which struggled last season, will aim for a top five place this year after picking up some good prospects.

The club has also concentrated on securing its future off-field after recruiting a number of youngsters onto its committee.

President Steve Mayes believes the addition of Pakenham's Dane Bridgeman, Adam Shearer from South Australia and player/coach Justin Rae to the senior side will turn the tide.

"We'll also have the likes of youngsters Chris Aitken, Jess Pearlman and Matt Mosley coming up from the thirds to add to the senior list," Mayes said.

"We are doing good all-round so we are hoping to knock on the top five's door this season."

Mirboo North

AFTER the surprise resignation of last year's premiership coach Peter Mongta just weeks away from the start of the season, who better to lead the Tigers in their hat-trick bid than 2006 premiership coach Troy Hamilton?

The Tigers will be without several experienced premiership players this season, including star full forward Tim Traill who is overseas, key position player Stuart Keel (Dromana) and Nick Bickerton (Boolarra).

Several players are likely to have interrupted seasons including Heath Schaeche, Brett Palmer and last year's grand final standout, Kris Berchtold.

The Tigers have picked up Cora Lynn tall man Lincoln Toyner, who will be a handy replacement for Keel.

"Obviously Tim Traill is a big loss to the club and the competition overall but it just means we'll have to rely on other goalkickers," president Andrew Taylor said.

"When you look at the losses it sounds bad, but it's not. If we can be top three at the end of the year and run into some form at the end, we'll still be there."

Morwell East

DESPITE losing a number of players in the off-season Morwell East is confident it still has what it takes to make the top five this year.

The Hawks have lost Brandon Mahoney to Churchill, former coach Luke Hopman to Sale City, Aaron Makepeace to Moe and Corey Bannister to Cowwarr.

But they have picked up Michael Higgins from Morwell and Eddie Lithgow and Luke Pavey from the now-disbanded DWWWW.

Coach Anthony Pavey said poor numbers during pre-season did not help the club but he was adamant the Hawks would remain competitive.

"Numbers at training haven't been great... but we will do alright, we have lost a few players but at the same time we did pick up a few," Pavey said.

"In our three pre-season games we were competitive but we struggled in our first against Gormandale because of numbers.

"But I'm still confident Morwell East will make the finals."

Newborough

PERENNIAL finalist Newborough has had a steady pre-season training program under coach Anthony Magnuson.

The Bulldogs have picked up key position player Jason Donelly (Moe) and solid defender Chris Wendt (Highett), while Danny Schembri will return from Moe.

Strong defender Darryl Disisto is currently overseas but Magnuson is hopeful he will be back to play during the season.

"We haven't lost any players which is going to be huge for us, it will be the playing group's third year together, with the inclusion of a few new juniors," Magnuson said.

"Our aim was to maintain our list and get them all on the park again. With the age of the group, they will have matured another year which is good for us.

"We haven't been happy with finishing fourth or fifth the last few years.

"We think it's time the players stand up this season and we're expecting to get a huge improvement out of them."

Thorpdale

THORPDALE is preparing to break into the finals this season after securing several new faces.

Last year the club finished seventh but if its players can stay injury free Thorpdale looks set to challenge some of the top sides.

Thorpdale has scored a number of players from Yarragon including Alan Wright, Matthew Mallia and Dan Grima.

The club will try out some thirds who are ready to make the jump to the seniors.

Grima will take up the role of assistant coach to Colin Gibson-Williamson.

Thorpdale has lost no players of note which Gibson-Williamson said was a huge "bonus".

"I think we have a good chance of making the finals this year," he said.

"We beat last year's finalist Yinnar so we are sort of knocking on the door, we're pushing for the finals and if we can make it, that would be a good achievement."

Trafalgar

TRAFALGAR is keen to improve after bowing out in the first week of the finals last year in a thriller against Newborough.

"We're hoping to improve on last year's performance, as long as we don't get any injuries because that would only cut us down," president Neil Grimshaw said.

"No matter how good your list is as soon as you get some injuries you tend to struggle.

"This year we are going to give it a good crack because we were a little disaopointed finishing fourth and then getting knocked out straight away."

The team list, while relatively unchanged, will see the return of some big players.

"We've got about four or five ex-Trafalgar players coming back including Blake Slater, Craig McMahon, Duncan Ireland and Adrian Romano," Grimshaw said.

"And we've been lucky enough to give about six or so juniors a run so they will be looking to break into the seniors side soon."

Yallourn/Yallourn North

IT'S been a long time between drinks for Yallourn/Yallourn North, which last won the flag in 1996, but hopes are high for a finals finish this season.

The Bombers under Dale Burridge will benefit from the return of goalsneak Tim Phillips from Yarragon, and Iain Irving and David Stevens from long term injury.

They have picked up several players including Mark Harvey (Glengarry) and former Dandenong Stingrays and Devon Meadows tall man Matt Shaw.

Rick Hearn has retired along with new president Rohan Bounds, while youngsters Michael Rosato and Ammon Difresco will play with Moe.

Young players to step up include Tom Hutton, Justin Patterson and Chris Jackson.

"We definitely want to finish in the top four, we had two games that we dropped last year that we think we should turn around, and we'll be improved on top of that," Bounds said.

He promised a faster, fitter, younger side this season.

Yarragon

YARRAGON faces the toughest start to the season of any club.

After playing Hill End in round one, the next five games will pit the Panthers against each of last year's final five sides.

But new coach and former Melbourne player, Lloyd Bergman said it would be a challenge the Panthers could use to their advantage.

"We hope that by the end of round six we will know where we're travelling, I think we've got a good draw that will certainly sort out some of the weeds from the seeds and give us something to work with."

Several former Panthers will return to the club this season including veteran Kevin Grima, Paul Harvey and James Moyes.

The club has also taken the chance to snap up some new players who have moved into town, including defender Scott Holmes and onballer Ren Anderson from Drouin.

"We've been fortunate that we've picked up a couple of guys that can cover some territory," Bergman said.

"They've struggled with that over the last three or four years at least so we hope we can be better for it."

Yinnar

YINNAR is no stranger to finals success and the Magpies may go all the way again in 2008.

The Magpies have picked up some handy former players who have returned to the club including James Dowling, Lee Clarke, Sam Mills (all from Morwell) and Cameron Harwood (Moe).

Gone are ruckman Leigh Kearney (Rosedale) and experienced full back Michael Fox.

Coach Tim Darby said the Magpies' dream run with injuries last year helped them make the grand final but this season they have not had as much luck.

"It's been pretty slow for us, we've had a good pre-season in terms of recruiting with a number of guys back from West Gippy Latrobe but the numbers on the track have been slow," he said.

"We're going to back ourselves to win every game we play but those who say we're going to dominate and be unbeatable don't realise it's going to take us at least until round four or five to get going."