Thirroul coach Jarrod Costello took barely two days. He watched it start to finish and then put it to bed. He won't look again and says his side won't either as they begin their quest at going one better.

For the record, the Butchers trailed 18-0 at halftime in last year's decider only to storm back into the contest in the second half and fall two points short of a come-from-behind win for the ages.

"I watched it pretty much straight away," Costello said.

"It was the Tuesday or the Wednesday afterwards. It was disappointing but that's last year.

"You can look at the season as a whole and say it was a successful year although we let ourselves down with a poor first half. Full credit to Wests, they were awesome that first half.

"It's something to look back on and say it was disappointing but we can't dwell on that and we won't be using that as motivation this year. If we need to look at that for this year I think we've got issues."

Whatever the motivation, there's plenty of cause for optimism out Gibson Park way. Perennially thereabouts, the Butchers have firmed as favourites in the eyes of many given major additions to their forward stocks.

Jack Noble returns from a year abroad while Damien Sironen and Jay Gallagher - who've previously split their time between the NSW Cup and the Illawarra League - are on board fulltime this season.

It's presented some selection conundrums ahead of Saturday's round one clash against Collegians at Gibbo.

"It looks as strong as last year, it's hard to know," Costello said.

"Last year we were probably more balanced, this year we'll probably have to play a few guys out of their preferred positions with the philosophy of picking your best 17 and making it work that way.

"I'm going to find it really hard to pick 17 guys for round one, there's probably 22 there capable of playing first grade. We'll probably take a few weeks to find our way and how it's all going to work.

"I know all the guys who've come in are really good players but, more importantly, they're all of great character as well. They've trained really hard and seeing how hard they've worked through the preseason's been really good."

Saturday's cash will ring in Costello's fourth year in charge having taken the reins of a young squad in 2016. They went without finals action that season but reached a prelim and grand final in the ensuing two.

It's valuable experience but Costello said his ethos remains the same.

"I haven't really changed much as a coach at all, there's only so many ways you can play footy," he said.

"I just try to stick with what suits the players in your team and what the club's about. The sort of style that suits Thirroul is that tough style where we try and get in the grind.

"We base our game around those effort areas. If you're good in those areas the points look after themselves. That's how I've coached the last few years and that's what we'll continue to do.

"The start's obviously important and we've made a point the last few weeks of focusing on nothing else but round one against Collies."