Round one dawns on Saturday and the club will be at their home fortress of Lawrence Park to play against the Pambula Panthers.

Luke Taylor will form one half of a decade-long rivalry with Pambula veteran Sean Smith matching him on the opposition. 

"It's an exciting time, like it always is at this point of the year," Taylor said. 

"We've got a pretty young core group around this year and it definitely keeps us older guys feeling young."

The club is looking forward to the contest with the Pambula Panthers in both the women's and senior draws, with the Tathra seniors putting renewed focus on attacking footy. 

Taylor praised Lipsham's work to hone the Eagles' forward pressure. 

"Any time you can play an attacking style of footy is exciting, but critically it's really fun - it's uplifting for the team if you've got the opportunity to kick multiple goals." 

"Tom has done a fantastic job in the pre-season to implement that into the game plan.

"There is no better time to get it going than in round one against our arch rivals in Pambula."

Senior coach Tom Lipsham said he was keen to get back to the style of footy the Eagles had previously embodied. 

"That's the style of footy we used to play and I want to see a return to that," Lipsham said. 

"We want to get a start on the front foot, the Panthers are coming to play and it will be good if we can knock them off in round one, touch wood, that would be the ideal start."

Both Taylor and Lipsham agreed that the Sea Eagles had fallen a bit short of match fitness late in 2018, but renewed focus from the coach has the team working hard. 

"I've been putting them through the hard runs early," Lipsham said. 

"And experience will play in the favour of some of our guys too, they know how to make it work."

Some of the club's young guns are shining examples of the focus for Tathra this year with Zac Harlow and Billy Stubbs setting the bar.

"They haven't missed a beat," Taylor said. "They've got plenty of ability and we hope they can put it down on the field."

Lipsham said the duo had been the highlight ahead of game one, while he was also excited to see Liam Eastick-Walker back in an Eagles jumper. 

"They've see the bar pretty high, it's made some of us work a bit harder," Lipsham said. Both the Tathra ladies and seniors will be in action on Saturday with ladies at 1.10pm and senior play from 2.30pm.