The competition has grown in popularity in recent years and has attracted some of the best teams in Southern New South Wales and the ACT with this year's draw no exception.

This year's field is wide open, with strong Group 9 sides looking to leave with some of the lucrative prize pool, while the locals in Group 20 will be out to keep the cash and prestige in the region, after Wagga Kangaroos claimed the top prize in 2009.

"It's going to be a hard one to pick a winner from, from reports of what kind of recruiting clubs have done and it being early season and all, it does make it hard to come up to a potential final," West Wyalong secretary Peter Campbell said.

"We've been told Young and Gundagai have recruited pretty strongly and Wagga Brothers have got a bloke from Canterbury lower grades as their coach, Goulburn won their comp last year and retained most of their players and I found out Leeton have recruited pretty strongly, so it should be a pretty interesting weekend."

The strongest local side heading into the weekend is the Yenda Blueheelers who have retained most of their side that went undefeated last season, with several new recruits joining the club during the off-season.

Group 9 will once again have a strong representation at the tournament, with last year's winner Kangaroos likely to still go close to the $8000 top prize despite losing big names Grant Wooden and Jaden Kelly.

Brothers, without Craig Field are likely to struggle in the pre-season tournament, however Gundagai have picked up several big name players in the form of former Cootamundra Bulldogs' David Letete and centre Phil Latu.

Despite losing big name Matt Utai, Young, under the guidance of former Canterbury Bulldog Brent Crisp look set to be competitive despite a lack of star players while South City has kept most of last season’s side and has picked up a number of handy players including Ned Mortimer.

Round one draw

7pm

TLU v Young

7.35pm

South City v Leeton

8.10pm

West Wyalong v Cootamundra

8.45pm

Cowra v Wagga Kangaroos

9.20pm

Yenda v Gundagai

9.55pm

Goulburn Workers v Wagga Brothers

Junee – bye