Guy Smith will take the reins again after first taking charge at the end of 2019. He is yet to have a full season in charge because of COVID-19.

Like everybody, Smith is hopeful that 2022 is an interruption-free year after a tough 2021 saw the Saints finish 11th in the Horsham District Football Netball League.

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The side won their first two games before going on to lose their next ten.

"We didn't have the best of years last year obviously," Smith said.

"We started off the season ok but with the border closures and things like that it made it pretty tough.

"A few of our top-level football players were coming across the border. That put a spanner in the works. We slowly dropped off as the season went on."

According to Smith, Edenhope is looking strong ahead of the 2022 season.

"(In 2020) we were quietly confident that we would be top three with that side," he said.

"But obviously 2020 didn't go ahead and we lost about ten players from that season.

"This year with what we've recruited and what we're going into I'm even more confident now. I'm hoping for a top two."

Although they may not have had a successful year in terms of wins, Smith still took positives from the year.

"The benefits were in my situation were that I enjoyed the year because I had a different challenge," he said.

"Because I was pretty much having to teach a reserve level team how to play the game properly. `

"I was really happy with the way they finished the year off and how much they improved as footballers."

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While the adversity of the past two years has affected him, Smith said that it hadn't necessarily made him a better coach because he "didn't really get a chance to coach".

"Mentally it can really stuff with your emotions and you want to do the best that you possibly can but when you're getting continually interrupted and those interruptions are causing player unavailability your morale as a coach just drops.

"It's just so hard and that's something that really opened my eyes. Especially towards mental health."

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