Western Suburbs premiership coach Lantry takes over from Luke Dorn, whose two-year stint at the helm of the Pickers ended with Maitland's courageous14-10 elimination final loss to Cessnock at the Maitland Sportsground on Saturday.

The Pickers have also announced they have signed former Newcastle Knights hooker Tyler Randell. Randell played 44 games with the Knights from 2014-17 before joining UK Super League Wakefield Trinity in 2018.

Lantry joined Pickers president Frank Lawler in paying tribute to Dorn and his coaching group's tenure which saw the club take part in the finals both years and crowds flock back to the Maitland Sportsground after two lean years at Coronation Oval.

Lawler said Dorn had created an excitement and enthusiasm about the Pickers and the club believed Lantry was the man to build upon that and deliver finals success into the future.

Dorn signalled to the club that he did not have the time necessary to oversee plans to develop youth programs as well as direct the first grade teams.

It's a challenge Lantry said he is equipped to take up and one he is excited about meeting.

"It's a role that does appeal to me and part of the reason it does is that I have a background in junior development. The one thing that we really want to continue to try to build upon and enhance is our relationship with local clubs in the community," he said.

"Show that we do have the right structures and pathways for kids to play at the highest level possible that may be available to them outside of pursuing a career down the elite pathways of the Knights 16, 18s, 20s and through to NRL.

"If you are not quite at that standard we want to have a really good standard locally where you are still looked after as a junior player and gain the right education to come through and play first grade with Maitland."

Like Dorn before him, Lantry said as a Maitland junior there was a natural desire to come home.

"The things that really appeal to me, obviously the facility is second to none, but the way the community of Maitland supports the footy team and that was evident yesterday in the semi-final. They had a great crowd in there and they generated plenty of atmosphere," he said..

"The foundations have been laid by Luke and his staff in conjunction with Frank and his committee, all we really need to do is come and build upon that, we certainly don't feel need to set up about changing any processes in place.

"It's a job that has always appealed to me. It's my home club being a Maitland junior playing for West Maitland and Morpeth.

"I actually played for Maitland in the 16s and 17s and returned for one year in 2006 as a player and unfortunately the club went bankrupt and that's what led me into coaching.

"I took on the captain-coaching role at Greta Branxton, the Colts first grade side in 2007. I dabbled around playing and then decided to concentrate on coaching in 2008. It's always been an ambition to coach Maitland at some point but for whatever reason things hadn't quite aligned to do it until now."

Lantry said Maitland had a strong squad of players and some exciting young talent coming through.

"It's early in terms of the squad. Maitland are a very good side, probably their strength is their forward pack. Matt Alwood in the outside backs, the emergence of young Greg Morris at fullback they are all exciting prospects for the club," he said.

"I think the priority we need to have first before we worry about any recruiting is obviously retention and on top of that what do we have coming out of our own system, that is ready to progress to top grade."

"There are a number of things we need to look at but definitely every club wants to add a few players to their roster who they are we're not too sure and they're the conversations we will have in the near future.

"The roster seems quite balanced, they were a top three team for an extended period of the season this year. From there just dropped off a couple of games, but also the tightness of the competition from two through to six was a good as you could hope to see.

"Guys like Cal Burgess and Jye Bieman King, who has already played a bit of first grade, those are the guys we want to earmark to give every opportunity to bring through before we start looking at some other recruits we can start to add to the roster."

Lawler said the Pickers had secured a number of players signatures already including star prop Sam Anderson, exciting young fullback Greg Morris, Tylar Carter and Jarrod Smith.

"We can now being the process in earnest about re-signing players," he said.