The blue and whites will adopt an across-the-board measure to paying its playing roster in 2020 in a bid to return to the Group 10 finals next season.

Ward was voted in as president at the club's annual general meeting on Sunday and says addressing the club's payment method was one of his first points of business.

He said the change, which he encouraged small-town clubs to adopt as well to ensure their longevity, was designed to help ensure "our performance in 2020 will be a lot better than our performance in 2019".

"We've changed our payment structure this year ... all players are pretty much on the same money," Ward said.

"We just see the money in country rugby league getting out of hand so we're setting up a platform that clubs in smaller towns, if they can adopt the same principles, can even the load a little bit.

"We have a win and draw payment but a minimum pay for a loss."

The idea to change the payment structure has been in the works since the middle of this year's season, where things started to take a turn for the worse.

"We probably went over and above this year, without much success, and we had players leave before the competition started," Ward said.

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"Then the biggest loss was Zac Merritt with a broken leg. It took a long time to get the boys back together."

The tightening of their belt at St Pat's comes after the Cowra Magpies expressed similar concerns about the level of spending at their club in 2019.

Ward steps into the top job he last held in 2016, with David Chapman's three-year tenure as president coming to an end.

Gary Goldsmith reprises his role as secretary while husband and wife Michael and Noelene Mashman fill the treasurer and registrar positions respectively.