A nearly winless 2019 season in which the Rams secured only one victory doesn't provide the most solid foundation to build on, but O'Neill is committed to a long-term plan for success.

"I'm looking at a five year plan at the moment, we have a lot of very good juniors coming through at the top end of a number of different age groups at the moment," O'Neill.

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The strength of the Rams junior contingent, and in particular the on-court experience gained by two of the Rams best young guns in Rohan Birell and James O'Neill last season, are going to be big focuses in 2020.

"James and Rohan had a really outstanding season last year, in terms of the age and the experience they came into the competition with, they were really brilliant, I thought," O'Neill said.

O'Neill notes that the new-look Rams squad have an average age of about twenty at the moment, including newly signed Daniel Pracy and Jack Mills, both of whom have moved over from Gilgandra and have prior representative experience.

"They've had some experience playing in the development program over there, so they're a good get for us," O'Neill said.

The new additions, and the fact that everyone on the team is excited to start playing, are both boons for the Rams, who were hit by two high profile departures during the off-season, with Canadian Rob Dewar unable to play this season and American Charles Baines departing to pursue opportunitie sin Europe.

"With Rob's work commitment he was unable to return for us, so we don't have him this year," O'Neill said.

"That's a big loss, but so is Charles, who's taken an offer to play in France, but we've only lost Charles last week, so we've still had a full pre-season with him and he still gave us a lot."

Another boost will be long-time club veteran Damien Reid no long splitting his time between playing and coaching, with O'Neill taking over full time and Reid intending to remain a strong guide on court for his young cohort.

"I've taken over to give Damien a bit more time to focus on his basketball, but he's still really solid, he's always been that stalwart in the club," O'Neill said.

"Having that experienced hand of Damien to guide them as a senior player will be really good for this team."

While O'Neill is under no illusions that the coming season will provide stiff opposition for his young squad, the team is still excited to get some time on court and get their season off to a positive start against Queanbayan on Saturday.

"Everyone knows it will be a tough year, but if we put our plan together now, in five years time we could easily be a strong, competitive side in this competition" O'Neill said.

"It's always tough going up against teams who are drawing on much bigger population centres, but we're rebuilding at the moment and we're planning to build well."