MITIAMO coach Jen Wilson has played down any thoughts of the Superoos entering the 2024 LVFNL netball season as 'favourites'.
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While virtually all rival coaches nominated the Superoos as the 'team to beat' during the Bendigo Advertiser's Loddon Valley season previews - published during March and April - Wilson said that was a matter for others, but no one at Mitiamo would be buying into the conversation.
"I don't read too much into that, there's a long time between now and then in September and anything can happen," she said.
"I would hope we get ourselves into a good position to be competitive, but where that takes us, we can only concentrate on what we've got.
"Who everyone else has got is out of my hands, but as far as who might be favourites, it's not something we worry about. Our only focus this week is Marong."
The Superoos, who will be looking to go one better this season after finishing runners-up behind Maiden Gully YCW in the last two seasons, open their season against Marong at Malone Park on Saturday in Annette Grant Memorial Round.
It will be a rematch of last season's preliminary final - won by Mitiamo by one goal.
The two sides have had contrasting pre-seasons personnel-wise, with the Superoos having remained well settled, and the Panthers having had plenty of player turnover.
While Marong shapes as a work in progress with so many new faces, Wilson said the Superoos were expecting nothing short of a massive challenge against the Panthers.
"I don't think it has mattered where Marong has been on the ladder over the years, they have always put up a good tussle against us.
"They are definitely not to be taken lightly, that's for sure.
"We'll just give it everything we've got and hopefully get over the line at the end, but time will tell.
"With lots of new faces everywhere, it will be an interesting first half of the season.
"There's a real unknown about how things will pan out."
Robyn Cunnington will take the reins at Marong, which will be one of six clubs to start the season with a new coach.
Former Marong and South Bendigo midcourter Danielle O'Toole will be the playing coach of Bears Lagoon-Serpentine; Caz Wood and Olivia Collicoat will lead Bridgewater into battle; Hayley Fawcett has taken over the controls at Calivil United; and Chelsea Emmerson has replaced Gemma Scott at Pyramid Hill.
In an intriguing rest of the first round, expected improvers Bridgewater and Newbridge clash at Bridgewater; reigning premiers Maiden Gully YCW, minus a large chuck of last season's grand final-winning line-up, starts its defence against Calivil United; while Bears Lagoon-Serpentine starts the quest for its first win since 2019 against Pyramid Hill.
The Mean Machine-Maroons clash pits last season's sixth and fifth-placed teams, with both eyeing a rise up the ladder in 2024
