Maitland will be without grand final heroes Wade Beard (ACL)  and Jim Taranto (shoulder reconstruction) potentially for the season, but Saints recruitment man Rob Eddy is confident there’s enough young guns to step up and fill the void. 

“As we’re transitioning to the top league, we’re getting some guys coming to the club who are really keen to be involved,” Eddy said. 

“We haven’t had any standout guys come from interstate or anything, but we’re getting some good players coming out of the woodwork which is good for the depth of the club.”

Eddy nominated young Saints Harry Harbrow, Riley Newstead and Clint Warneken as players who could help lead the club in the top grade. 

“They’ve got a few years of grade under their belts now and they’re still under 20,” he said. 

Mitch Saxby was a player new to the club, Eddy said, who had played Australian Rules only sparsely, and could have a big impact after spending more time in the game. 

Pat McMahon was also up for a big year, Eddy suggested.

With cricket season drawing to a finish, he was confident that numbers would continue to improve. 

His views were echoed by Saints chairman Kevin Greaves, who said that promotion to the top league would stop the “bleeding” of players leaving the club to go and play in the top Black Diamond grade. 

Greaves said they'd start the season "a little bit behind the eight ball” given the injuries Beard and Taranto, but they still had lofty ambitions on their debut Black Diamond league season. 

“We’re going up into the premiership division and we’ve got to compete with the big traditional clubs, which will be hard,” he said. 

The revamped competition will have eleven teams and a five-team final system, with Greaves confident “we’ll be around there” when it comes to finals time. 

The men’s and women’s sides have undertaken an extensive pre-season so far, including a Black Diamond gala day last weekend held in scorching conditions at Muswellbrook. 

In stifling 38 degree heat, each team played three games. 

The men suffered tight losses to Wollondilly and Singleton before mustering a huge comeback against Lake Macquarie when down by 25 at half time.  

The women weathered a tough loss to a Sydney side boosted by the inclusion of several former Greater Western Sydney Giants players, before thumping Lake Macqaurie and finishing the day with a disappointing loss to Gosford. 

Greaves said overall it was a very pleasing day for the club, with a large number of new players and new combinations on show. 

“It was just nice to get out there and have a run, it was good to get some body on body contact in,” he said. 

The men will travel this weekend to play Penrith in Sydney, while the women’s side will take to the field for the annual Black Diamond AFL Women’s Gala Day at Tulkaba Park, Teralba.

It will be the first time that new teams in Port Stephens, Terrigal Avoca, The Entrance Bateau Bay and Wallsend-West Newcastle are seen in action.

The 2018 Black Diamond AFL competition will kick off on April 7, with the Saints, under the new sponsorship of the Bradford Hotel, set to take on Lake Macquarie in all three grades.