After four straight grand final appearances, the Lions missed out last year after being knocked out by eventual premiers Nowra-Bomaderry in the second week of the finals.

While one familiar face returns to the club, the Lions haven’t been actively recruiting and will go into the season without any trial games.

“We’ve lost a couple of first graders from last year, but Dave Catterall has come back who will be a handy player,” coach Michael Cronin said.

“We know the players we have and we haven’t got any new ones this year so we decided to keep it simple early which is why we haven’t played a trial.”

Though Cronin isn’t concerned about the Lions starting the season without a run under their belts, the loss of players in the lower grades is a little disconcerting.

“We have lost a lot of the depth that we’ve had in our reserve grade side for the last few years, of the side that played in the grand final last year there would be easily more than half of them who aren’t playing this year.

“In saying that, we’ve been lucky enough in the last few years to get a couple of players come through from the under 18s and looks like we’ll get a couple more this year as well. “

With a ball yet to be kicked in the season proper, Cronin said it’s hard to pick who will be the teams to beat in 2015.

“Nowra-Bomaderry won the comp last year and they’ve retained most of their players, Shellharbour will have some good young blokes coming through, Warilla might have lost a few but will still be strong.

“Jamberoo have apparently recruited a few and sides like Berry and Kiama seem to be on the up as they bring their juniors through.”