Talent time: Why champion Demon is excited by emerging crop of youth

It's why the club's crop of young players set to filter through the Warrnambool and District league senior side in 2024 has him buoyant and excited.

The Demons kick off their 2024 season with a home game against Allansford on Saturday, April 6 and the gun defender believes it's the perfect chance to make a statement with a bunch of new recruits and an influx of under 18 graduates to push their case for selection.

The club's under 18 made finals last season with almost a dozen expected to make the plunge into senior footy while it has landed Mitch Gristede (Allansford), Bobby Gristede (Allansford), Rhys Ziegler (Simpson), Balun Cumming (North Warrnambool Eagles) and Martin Angus (Cobden) during the off-season.

"It's come around pretty quick, which is not a bad thing," he said.

"The pre-season has been fantastic, lots of new faces at the club, there's probably 20 or so new players on the list this season.

"The kids are great, they're learning and developing and it's going to be good to see how they go playing senior footy this year and in the next few years.

"It's incredible, as an older player now, I remember when I was younger it was always so much fun training with the senior players.

"The problem we've got is keeping these kids at times but they're all so willing to learn. We're fortunate enough and one of the top-three clubs in the league I reckon in having strong juniors and plenty of numbers.

"We've got the numbers and the quality, more importantly we feel like we've got the depth there this season which is exciting."

Newey said the Demons, who finished ninth last season, were not placing any specific expectations on win-loss as they continued to rebuild.

"This year we haven't talked about the ladder and how many games we win," he said.

"It's more about how many games we can get into these kids. They are the club's future. The more games they get now the quicker they'll develop.

"We're rebuilding now and we'll be back bigger and stronger eventually."

But he believed the first-up challenge against the Tim Nowell-coached Cats, a team expected to push heavily for finals, was a welcome one.

"We don't mind being the underdogs," he said.

"All the pressure is on them, they've got something to lose now. I'm sure we can take it up to them, we've got some good recruits.

"It'll be a good game I reckon, we're a massive chance."