But Clinton Gilson says it won’t be just those who departed under the four-year reign of Jason Akermanis.

“We’ll talk to guys who left during the Bob Craig era and the Travis Hodgson era as well,” he said.

“We want as many North Albury people back as we can get.”

North has lost a host of quality players, with boom forward Adam Prior to Lavington in 2014, Matt McDonald joining Jindera and then Wodonga Raiders, while the classy Holman brothers Nick and Kris left via Jindera and now Lavington.

“I think that there’s a few people staying away because of Jason and if some of those come back, we might end up further up the ladder than I thought,” president Andre Dowding said.

Both Dowding and Gilson were fans of Akermanis, with Gilson calling him the most thorough coach he’s ever had, particularly in game planning and match reviews.

However, the chances of North picking up former players for this year are non-existent, and the club is adopting a philosophical approach.

“We won’t change it too much, we’ve only got seven weeks until our first practice match,” Gilson said.

“It’s going to be hard to adopt a new style pretty quickly.

“If we can win four or five games that’s a pretty good effort, we won five last year, so if we can stick around that mark it’s probably a pass mark.”

The inspirational Leslie will lead on-field, while Gilson has racked up a decade coaching at Rand-Walbundrie, Mitta and North.

And in a nice touch, two opposition coaches contacted the Hoppers.

Corowa-Rutherglen’s Terry Burgess, who’s chasing the club’s first win since 2015, called to wish Leslie and Gilson the best, while Yarrawonga’s Chris Kennedy texted the pair, suggesting they can contact him for guidance on how the Pigeons work the dual coaching role.