The Rangers have put the first pieces in place as they aim to become the Premier League's most improved team next year.
Corrimal announced their inaugural signings for the 2024 season over the weekend, with young centre-back Luca Papalia inking a fresh deal and Albion Park's 2023 championship-winner Tory Musumeci joining the club.
It's signs that the Rangers mean business as they look to rise up the IPL ladder after years near the middle, or bottom, of the table. And the 2019 grand final winners don't have to look too far for inspiration.
Fellow IPL club Cringila gave them the blueprint with their rise from being cellar-dwellers in 2021 to title contenders two years later under coaches Jorge De Matos and Icko Atanasoski.
Corrimal also have a one-two punch set-up with their coaches, with Phil Matias and Manny Mavridis guiding the team together. In their first season at the helm, the side accumulated seven wins on their way to a ninth place finish in 2023.
It was a drastic improvement on finishing 11th with two victories last year.
Papalia - who also joined the Rangers ahead of their 2023 campaign - is confident that his team is on the right track for success.
"I'm excited for next year. I knew that this year was going to be a challenge and a test, just to feel things out, but I knew the following year would be something a lot bigger," the 19-year-old told the Mercury.
"I wanted to stay with the club because of the coaches and the committee members. Everybody that's involved with the club has the same philosophy, morals and ethics that I look for in a football club and a team, and that's the main reason that I wanted to stay.
"Manny and Phil are coaches that know their football, they know how they want to play and they're stern about how they want to play - and that's how I want to express my football and learn off them.
"It just seems right, I don't really want to go anywhere else."
Papalia also hinted that there would be more signings to come in the near future.
"We've got a few changes, we've got a few players coming in which is good. But even the team that we had this year was a bunch of good and talented boys," he said.
"Our coaches wanted to show the league that it's not just about paying loads of money for experienced players. You can get a lot out of the young players if you coach them right. And if they believe in what the coaches and club wants to do - and how they want to play - we can achieve something.
"This year didn't go as planned, but we knew that if we stuck to it, what we can achieve in two, three years will make us feel a lot better. We'll trust the process. I think I can speak on behalf of most of the players that we enjoyed being part of the club this year.
"And that's the reason that most of the first grade boys are staying."
Papalia arrived at Corrimal in 2023 after spending the past couple of seasons at Port Kembla. He got his first shot in the with the Zebras' youth grade side, before representing their first-grade side last year.
However, the teen said he was attracted to moving to the Rangers because of Matias and Mavridis.
"I had experience with Phil before at Port Kembla, so it was a no-brainer for me," Papalia said.
"They wish nothing for the best for their players, and their main goal isn't for the players to stay at the club - they want players to go higher. They'd love to keep every player, but their main goal is to get their players to play NPL or even higher if they can.
"I love the way that they coach and they way that they go about it at the club."
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Joshua Bartlett
A sporting fanatic who is keen to promote all codes in the Illawarra and abroad. Mercury's chief football reporter.
A sporting fanatic who is keen to promote all codes in the Illawarra and abroad. Mercury's chief football reporter.
