Knowles, lured to the club from Springbank last year, has taken over the top job from Damian Lubeek and believes he has assembled the squad to return the Wickers to the playoffs for the first time since 2013.

Giving Knowles confidence is the solid list of recruits he has lured to the club.

Some are returning faces, while others are new to Creswick.

North Ballarat City midfielder Aaron Sedgwick looms as the most exciting of the signings, while Paul Phillips brings plenty of experience and can be used at both ends of the ground.

Phillips’ former Learmonth teammate David Wright is another good pick-up, while the likes of Sam Gibson, Brad Dunbar and Rhys and Cam Antonio will again pull on the red, white and black jumper.

“We haven’t gone out and spent big money on superstars. We’ve pretty much gone out and picked blokes that we needed and wanted for certain roles and positions,” Knowles, who doesn’t plan on taking the field this season, said.

“We needed some outside players because we have got a lot of ball-getters and we win contested footy, but we didn’t have too many with polish and outside runners, so we went and targeted a couple of them.

“And a bit more depth in the midfield.”

Knowles said the aim is to play finals in 2017.

“We’ve definitely set our goals to play finals,” he said.

“You don’t want to set your goals too high, but we should if we really put in the work.

“With what we’ve done, the pre-season we’ve done and the people we’ve got to the club, we should play finals. 

“That should be the pass mark, I reckon.”

The Wickers have reported three key losses from last year’s side that finished 13th on the ladder, with ruckman Sam Ayre, forward Lachlan Allison and defender Chris McLean now at new clubs.