FIVE junior graduates are forming a familiar core in Leesa Battistello's South Warrnambool outfit.
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The Standard understands Olivia Marris, Isabella Rea, Meg Kelson, Emma Stacey and Mali Baillie are likely to play a role for the rising Roosters in 2021.
The quintet could see action in South Warrnambool's season-opener against three-time reigning premier Koroit on Good Friday.
Battistello said the young players - who featured in the club's 17 and under premiership in 2019 - were learning from the Roosters' best.
They're three of the best players in the comp and have the ability to teach our young ones which is super exciting.
- Leesa Battistello
"We're in a unique position in that we've recruited one of the best goalies in the league, Annie Blackburn, we've kept one of our juniors in Ally Mellblom and we've added Carly Watson," she said.
"So we've got three really strong posts through the team. They're three of the best players in the comp and have the ability to teach our young ones which is super exciting."
Battistello said playing Koroit would give South Warrnambool - who have dominated headlines pre-season due to a strong recruiting drive - a "good reality check".
"We're really excited to start against Koroit. It'll give us a good reality check of where we're at," she said.
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"Sometimes it's not until you get out there you get a sense of where you're at.
"We'll get a lot of information to work on until we meet them again later in the season and we're looking at it as something that is really positive."
How will the Roosters go about their netball? Fast and fit are the two key elements.
"We want to be able to utilise that a lot of the players have played together before and know how to play together well," Battistello said. South Warrnambool and Koroit's Good Friday clash starts at 1:15pm.
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