The Lions will face a stern test early in the season when they take on Penshurst, who finished third in 2019, in round one on Saturday, April 17 away from home.

But after not getting to coach any games in 2020, A Grade coach Kira Stapleton is eager to guide her new squad towards finals.

"I'm really looking forward to round one," she said.

"We play Penshurst who are always a strong team to match up against and I'm looking forward to seeing our team gel together.

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"Of course we want to be playing the best netball that we possibly can on the court, but this year we are also focusing on bonding together as a team since we are quite new and I feel that can make a huge impact on the game and our players love for netball."

In 2019 the Lions finished sixth on the ladder and fell just short of making the finals, but there are no illusions about their goals in 2021.

"Finals, isn't that any coaches dream? We want to make it to finals and keep pushing forward from there," Stapleton said.

"To be honest I'm just excited to see all our players together. We have a great team full of amazing individual talent, so I'm hoping that we can blend all of this together to make a successful team."

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But when she was asked about changes to her squad heading into this season, Stapleton was coy.

"Our A Grade team this year is actually full of some new talent which everybody will have to wait until round one to find out," she said.

"I'm excited to see how things roll out."

In 2020 the Lions had recruited strongly, but the cancelled season led to some changes in their line-up, but Stapleton is confident their 2021 squad can challenge the best teams.

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