Altona and Toorak-East Malvern (TEMS) will send up sides for a series of round-robin matches.

Spitfires' co-coach Jeremy Payne admitted the event will make it much easier for he and Donnelley to settle on a starting line-up.

"It will help us structure our side," Payne said.

"The good thing this year is we have a large number of quality players, which probably makes it harder for us, but we still need to select a starting 15 each week.

"You train hard all pre-season, but as soon as you get into game mode, it's a completely different feeling, so to get that under the belt will be good.

"We've got some older players that were part of Spitfires that were involved with those clubs (Altona and TEMS), so we know a little bit through them.

"We played against TEMS in the indoor comp earlier in the year, so we know they're going to be strong and they're probably going to bring a lot of their stronger players, which is what we need to have a good start."

Payne is expecting to settle on a final squad of 18 to 20 players next week to provide coverage for any injuries and unavailabilities throughout the season.

He added numbers at training have been excellent, with a combination of players in the mix for spots.

"It's a bit of a split, we've got a few new faces and few older guys," Payne said.

"Dom Wild has returned from Scotland and Jordan Thorneycroft is a Spitfire veteran and is going around again, which has lifted the level of the team as well."

Action gets under way at 12.30pm on Saturday with games against Altona Blue and TEMS, while the Spitfires face Altona White at 9am on Sunday.

Entering their second campaign as coaches, Payne and Donnolley are looking to lead the Border side back to the Capital League finals after finishing sixth in their return to the competition.