The Saints kicked off pre-season training on Wednesday night, two months after a triumphant 16-point grand final win over North Warrnambool Eagles.

McLaren said he was in "the lucky position" where many of his players had been "back in footy-mode for a while" ahead of an official return to training.

"We're in a pretty lucky position that we don't essentially make sure the group are getting together to know that the players are all training," he said. "We've been able to ease off and freshen up mentally for our pre-Christmas training for the past few years."

McLaren, returning for his seventh season in charge, said the question of "have they (players) got full bellies with their success and will they keep fronting up?" had crossed his mind after their most recent success.

But with nine new faces in the 2022 premiership group, and with several former players returning, McLaren is confident in the group's desire for future success as a team.

"As the playing group and a club they've shown motivation's always there," he said. "It would have had plenty of opportunity to drop off in the last how many years and it certainly hasn't and it's no different now."

Meanwhile, a number of the Saints' most senior players will take a managed approach to pre-season.

"We've had players almost start their pre-season close to the season and built through the year," McLaren said. "The way we managed Jeremy (Hausler) last year, backed off his commitment to training with his young family and business, he probably had as good a year as he's had at any stage.

"When they get over 30 and had a lot of success, I don't think there is any need for them to be doing long, hard pre-seasons and probably not any reason for them trying to play 20-plus games either."

MORE SPORT

Have you signed up to The Standard's daily newsletter and breaking news emails? You can register below and make sure you are up to date with everything that's happening in the south-west.