Wangaratta will use last year's heartbreaking senior women's cup final loss to Albury City as motivation for its 2019 AWFA campaign.
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The Red Devils were edged out in golden goal in last year's decider and it still burns for star import Leanne Branson.
"With how it ended, I think it’s motivation to go into it this year and hopefully win it," she said.
"We had a couple of players leave this year, but we’ve also had people step up from the other teams.
"There is only six teams this year, which is disappointing, but they’re quite even."
Many are tipping St Pats to be a big threat in 2019 after reaching last year's semi-finals and taking out the Iannotta Cup this pre-season.
Goalkeeper Natasha Anderson is proud of the way the club has developed.
"A couple of years ago we were only playing one team much like the clubs are nowadays in reserves," she said.
"We ended up putting our team in seniors and we’ve grown to where we’ve now got both teams at capacity.
"It’s good for the club and the competition to show that women’s teams can come from having little to no-one to growing our comp to full capacity."
Albury City stalwart Brogan Broadway believes Patties and the Red Devils to be in contention for the title.
"We’ve unfortunately lost a good chunk of last year's squad, so this year is more of a focus on working with the younger girls and ressie girls coming through and enjoying our time on the park a bit more," Broadway said.