The club's women's Premier League Hockey side will head into the opening round this weekend with family trees sprouting all over the place as they continue their bid to return to their former powerhouse status.

New coach Michelle Barrett will take the reins of a side which includes her daughters Chloe and Sarah, who will play alongside sisters Alison and Lily Baker, and Barrett's right-hand man and assistant coach Daryl Kennewell's sister Leanne will lead the side. 

The assistant coach is also the club's president, and has been taking most training sessions with the elder Barrett out in Molong during the week.

"They didn't have a coach last year and now they have two," he said, the side's senior players doing the job last year.

He said there hasn't been a massive player turnover, and despite adding a second Orange Hockey Incorporate competition side the club faced upheaval off the field as most of the old committee moved on. 

On the pitch, life has been simpler for Kennewell as he and his charges have been overhauling the game plan - or lack thereof - in the off-season. 

"We've been talking about defensive structures and planned attacks and I can't reveal much but we want to abandon that scrambling style," he said. 

"We want to know what we're doing in every play and in every part of the field."

He said as an overall aim he wants to build the side's results to continue help building the club and that largely revolves around returning to the finals, after finishing second last in 2018.

"We know it's a lofty goal up against some pretty good teams," he said.

"It'll be an uphill battle, we want to make sure our forwards and defence doesn't fall away over the season.

"The end goal is to be competitive and to be close, we want to make people want to come to our club."

He thinks Bathurst St Pats are the favourites to take the competition out, but knows this week's opponents CYMS will be a mighty challenge for his young side. 

"CYMS are tough - they've got a few Ex-Services girls and their play is very structured. Looks like their numbers are strong," he said.  

"It will be a hard game."

While Jade Williams has left to join Confederates Kennewell said there were plenty of players shining during the pre-season. 

"Lily Baker is looking good. Eilysh Wellham has come down from Molong, and Larissa Gallard played well in the gala day," he said. 

That pre-season gala day a few weeks ago was something CYMS coach Pete Shea took a lot out of, with a decent turnover in experienced players in his sides' list. 

NSW and Australian Country star Rach Hoey and Emily Lake have moved on and Lucy Ferguson will only in Orange sporadically while she's on placement for studies, which Shea said will leave a big hole of experience in the side. 

That gap will be filled mostly by youth, with Parkes jet Emmie Searl joining Riley Summerfield, Sophie Goodall and a handful of Kinross players on the pitch. 

The change in personnel means Shea is expecting his side to have a lower start to the season as new players adapt to structure and positional moves.

"But hopefully it's a case of one step back at the start of the year and a couple of steps forward by the middle of the season," he said. 

He's cautious of Ex-Services, too, as he is with every club heading into a new season. 

"Every year you never know who's going around again and who's going to do what," he said. 

Ex-Services takes on CYMS at the Orange Hockey Centre from 12.30pm.