"The region's just starved of footy and sport in general and everyone's pretty excited to come down and have a look," he said.

"We had a game of cricket against the Merrivale cricketers a few weeks ago and the whole place was packed.

"Playing in front of crowds, it's going to be pretty exciting."

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The Tigers face Old Collegians at Davidson Oval on Good Friday.

It's been about 18 months since both clubs played an official match.

Their most recent encounter was a semi-final in 2019.

"There's nothing quite like playing a proper game of footy for four premiership points," Cassidy said.

"Practice matches are great but once you actually get out with four points on the line, it's a bit different."

Cassidy, a 2014 premiership player, is pumped to see recruits such as Manny Sandow (South Warrnambool) and Jack Gleeson (Koroit) in action.

"Any time you can get a Maskell Medallist come and play for you, it's pretty exciting," he said.

"Obviously Manny's a Merrivale boy who has come back to play for his home club which is good that we're doing something right, we're drawing him back.

"We've got Jack Gleeson back and Jyron Neave has come back again.

"It's pretty exciting they want to get on board with what we're doing down here."

The wingman has been impressed with the Tigers' commitment to pre-season training. They started in November.

"It's been great, the past few years our pre-season numbers before Christmas were not very good," Cassidy said.

"It's a bit hard to get your game plan going right and get all your set ups working well.

"This year we've had at least 30 every night, 40 most nights.

"We've just been able to work on our game plan and know how we're going to play."

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