After captain-coaching alongside Claude Gordon in 2018, Naden has now taken the reins himself, and is taking a hard line on players’ attendance and effort at training.

Gordon is bound for the Cowra Magpies after signing with the Group 10 club back in October.

Naden urged players to give their all throughout their all throughout the preseason, warning past performance was not enough to earn people a spot of a Sunday if they didn’t put in week in, week out.

“It all starts with preseason and I’ll just keep an eye on who’s been putting in at training,” he said.

“There’s been a few people ask if they’ve got spots, and I’ve just said ‘nobody’s got their spot cemented yet until you can turn up at training and show me that you’re putting in’.

”There’s still a couple of months before the season starts, so it’s good to start early and hopefully a couple of boys can get down here and rip in and fight for positions.”

There was a feeling of optimism at the club’s preseason training on Tuesday, with the new look committee on hand to assist with preseason training.

READ MORE: Westside president Steve McLellan sees ‘plenty to look forward to’ in 2019

Former Fiji Rugby League general manager, and Macquarie Raiders coach, Steve McLellan is the club’s new president, with Col Fuller (vice-president), Wayne Mallison (treasurer), Brooke Mallison (secretary) and Emily Williams (registrar) rounding out the board.

Naden is joined in the coaching ranks by former Macquarie Raiders reserve grade coach Jason Hill (reserves), Mick Louie (under 18s) and Brigette Fernando (league tag).

McLellan’s leadership has also attracted a number of former Macquarie stars, with Jade Hooper, Kurt Fuller and Etuate Gusivalu among the major signings.

Naden was excited to have some more mature heads on board.

“There was a lot of young fellas here last year and just the older heads and a bit more talk about training … they’ll actually just rip in at training and show the young fellas that we’re here to train and I don’t have to keep my eyes on everyone,” he said.

Naden admitted the mood was already more positive within a playing group that was often guilty of getting their heads down, and lacking belief, on the field.

“We’ve been training for a couple of weeks now and and just the positive talk coming from the older fellas here, they’re just helping the other younger fellas and you can just see the younger fellas taking that in their stride and benefiting from these older, experienced blokes here.”

After a number of injuries in 2018 – including his own torn pectoral muscle – Naden is looking forward to more consistency in 2019.

“When we played Forbes the second time [last season], I think there was only three players from the firt time we played against them,” he said.

“That’s what I’m really looking for this year, is hopefully just keeping roughly around the same 25 blokes for the season.”