ANY rival clubs hoping Cairns Saints have lost motivation after winning the past three AFL Cairns premierships should think again.

Desire is not in short supply at Saints, who this season attempt to become the first club since Souths Balaclava (1963-66) to win four consecutive titles in Cairns.

Saints player-coach James Coatsworth, who won a premiership in his first year in the top job, will not let complacency undermine his team's 2011 campaign.

"That’s my job to keep the boys on their toes," Coatsworth said.

"We’re going for four in a row and we really want to do that.

"I am a bit more experienced (as a coach) than this time last year.

"I know what to expect a bit more and plan to keep things pretty simple and as normal as possible."

One thing that will be different at Saints this year is playing personnel.

Some of the club’s confirmed departures include 2010 Howard Kennedy Medal winner Matt Hammond, Jim Rushton, Josh Walsh, Ricky Scarce and Josh Cother. They are significant losses by any recruitment manager’s reckoning, but Saints were able to overcome a similar turnover in quality last year to prevail in September.

With a two-week preseason competition starting on March 12, Coatsworth hopes he can soon assemble his full squad on the training paddock.

"A lot of guys still haven’t shown their faces at training yet," he said.

"We’ve lost a fair few players from last season and we’re still waiting on blokes to come up and fill out the squad. Hopefully we’ll have everyone here by mid-March because the games start pretty soon."

The Saints open their title defence with a game against North Cairns on Saturday, March 26.

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