The Seagulls have unveiled Kaine Mercovich as an assistant coach, luring the star midfielder back to the fold after a season at SANFL finalist North Adelaide.

Second-year coach Winis Imbi said Mercovich would make an immediate impact.

"The benefits are multi-layered. We don't just need players but we need players of his calibre," he said.

"The great thing too is that he comes back with intellectual property as well. That's fantastic for our group. He's a Port Fairy lad who has been exposed to some things other boys haven't seen before.

"Because he's lived that high level, he knows even the fitness level you need to be at and even the work ethic it takes to build a motor. We just have to try and tailor that to our boys.

"Mercovich can lead the way with that which is fantastic."

Imbi said Mercovich would integrate with Port Fairy's midfield mix and also spend time forward.

"The good thing is that he's overt as well," he said of the 179-centimetre talent.

"Looking at our list demographic, I'm not saying our guys are introverted or anything, but whether it's age or just their manner they're still finding their way like that.

"Kaine is certainly a voice and he'll complement Matt Sully and Isaac Martin, who is another of our emerging leaders."

Imbi revealed Port Fairy was working to add to its list but pointed to a tough recruiting climate.

He said the Seagulls had worked to retain the majority of their list and praised list manager Gareth Allen for his role in re-signing talent.

"It's been hard for our club. It's hard in the sense other clubs in our league will go for our players, it's hard for our group when we've got really talented juniors who rightly go to other places like Merco did last season," Imbi said.

"It's also hard to attract players to where we finished on the ladder as well."

"It can be a real kick in the guts sometimes when you talk to players because you don't want to recruit on lies or false promises either.

"If I use a throwaway phrase, you don't want to say 'oh yeah we'll be good' - we can't do that - I suppose we could but we won't.

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"You've got to start somewhere and hoepfully there'll be a lot more players either coming back to the club or joining the club because we really want players to join our club and grow our club.

"But we need to make sure we keep investing in the list we've got as well. On Wednesday we started our pre-season and that was really encouraging."

Imbi said the Seagulls had undertaken pre-Christmas running with the club's netballers in a bid to keep building the "one club" mentality.

He said while sessions weren't mandatory, it had been a positive experience for players and coaches.

"Credit to Renae Taylor, our open netball coach. It was her brainchild and it was great. We've got a lot of people at the club willing to try new things which is awesome," he said.

Port Fairy will play flag contender North Warrnambool Eagles at Gardens Oval in round one.

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