With the season set to get underway on March 24, the Rhinos are entering the final stages of their preseason preparation, and coach Gabriel Abdala is confident his side have a better understanding of what they will come up against.

“Moving into the second season they understand and know what the quality is of the football that is to be played,” she said.

“This year we have already put together a stronger squad than what we had last year. Depth-wise we are looking strong.

“Moving forward in my eyes and I believe in the coaching staffs eyes we are going to do a lot better than we did last year.”

The Rhinos did experience success from their junior sides last year with the under 13s and under 14s sides making it through to the grand final last season and Abdala is hopeful of all sides making it though to the finals across juniors and seniors.

“Ultimately you want to see your youth being successful within in their competitions it just gives you a bit of a foundation to grow on within the development of football in not only Griffith but also the Riverina,” he said.

“So making two grand finals there is pretty much the benchmark we are setting for our youth. Hopefully, we get all three teams into the grand final this year as well as looking to make finals football within our senior grades as well.”

The Riverina side has already played two trial games early this month against Victorian NPL sides Green Gully and Murray United with Abdala saying the side played well considering it was their first run out as a team for the season.

“We are nearly there to the point where we want to be beginning the season,” he said.

The Rhinos have another trial game this weekend at EW Moore Oval where they will take on Narrabundah with the game starting at 5pm while the under 18s will also play a practice game starting at 3pm on Saturday.