The Saints suffered a preliminary final defeat to eventual premiers Ararat but went straight into preparing for 2024.

"There was a good group that barely took any time off after that prelim. It was a hard prelim, but they were straight back into it," Knott said.

"They've all come back with the confidence of what they did last year but also with a bit of a bee in their bonnet from how the year finished with a point to prove."

Knott can already see the changes in his own mindset as he prepares for the second year in the role.

"The first year, it was a lot more hoping to go well. But this year, there is a lot more belief and confidence. Knowing the competition is going to be really good," Knott said.

"Also believing if we're somewhere near our best, we can compete really well with everyone else."

Coming into the 2024 season, the Saints have added some experience to its young playing group.

Key forward Nathan Koenig joined from Natimuk United, whilst Corey Morgan added more grunt into the midfield.

"It is a bit of experience which we needed, but Corey is still in that mid-20s age bracket," he said.

"It's that demographic we keep talking about."

Freddy Frew, Bailey Taylor, Joshua Haby, and Alexander McRae are a few players who will call Coughlin Park home.

McRae returns to the club after one season with Kalkee, while Frew, Taylor and Haby join from District League clubs Pimpinio, Natimuk United and Laharum, respectively.

"Now we've built a foundation, and we believe we can just keep adding building blocks of that and hopefully keep this young group together for multiple years," Knott said.

The Saints have had a practice match against Springbank of the Central Highlands Football Netball League before a final hit-out against Kalkee on Thursday, April 4.

"We just looked more structurally at how we wanted to set up and if there were any tweaks we needed to make, which were identified," he said.

"We are going to have a bit of flexibility with our team this year in terms of players playing different positions depending on the opposition or how the game is going."