Opposition teams are 'on notice” about the potential of the Steamers as the Mitre 10 Cup season approaches, an upbeat head coach Clayton McMillan believes.

Bay of Plenty wrap up their preseason preparations tomorrow with a hitout against Auckland in Katikati, before opening their Championship division campaign Saturday week in Rotorua against Taranaki.

Clayton is cautious – as coaches generally are – but mixes that with optimism, saying his team is in good shape to give promotion back to the Premiership a decent nudge.

It's the potential impact his backline in particular will bring into the season that has brought on his positive mood.

'We're really excited about our backs. We've got at least two good players in each position that will all be pushing for starts so it'll be great internal competition. That naturally drives the standards up.”

Blue and gold legend Mike Delany highlights the familiar backline names Clayton has been able to include in his 32-man squad. Halfbacks Luke Campbell and Richard Judd along with midfielders Lalakai Foketi and Terrence Hepetema and fullback Chase Tiatia are other high-profile returnees from last year's successful campaign, which came within a heartbreaking extra time final defeat to Wellington of achieving the holy grail of promotion.

New Zealand under 20 rep Kaleb Trask, highly promising Te Puke first-five Jason Robertson, All Black Sevens star Trael Joass and Liam Steel, who debuted last year but had his season cruelly abbreviated by injury, are among the players bubbling under and ready to put their names in lights.

'Joe Webber hasn't quite recovered from some of his injuries from the sevens campaign and Monty Ioane's setting things alight over in Italy, so we lost a couple of guys that were pretty electric for us last year but we've replaced them with good players.

'Across the board I think we've got better depth.”

The fact they've been able to hold off the lure of overseas riches in many cases and keep their key backline combinations intact is a big plus, says Clayton.

'There's a lot to be said for cohesion. A guy like Monty, we think he was worth an opportunity at Super Rugby but it didn't come so he took an opportunity overseas.

'There are several players in our playing ranks this year who were presented with similar opportunities, but we've been fortunate enough to have kept them here.

'A lot of them are guys that performed extremely well last year and have been part of our furniture for two or three years, and it's taken that long for them to get comfortable at this level. It would have been a real shame to have lost them having got them all to a point where most teams are on notice around the threat and potential they have.”

Departures and injuries have brought about a few more changes to his squad's forward division than Clayton would have liked, but he's still confident they can get the job done. Four of last year's locking stocks have moved on, with Culum Retallick retiring, and Tom Franklin, Troy Callendar and Keepa Mewitt all chasing their fortunes in Japan.

In addition, loose forward Jesse Parete has returned to his home province Taranaki, while injuries are likely to prevent front rowers Sebastian Siataga, Tom McHugh and Aidan Ross playing much part in the season.

Clayton doesn't expect to see much of All Blacks Sam Cane and Nathan Harris through the season either, unless there's some ‘pretty radical thinking' from Steve Hansen.

'We've lost a significant amount of experience, particularly in our second row, so that's not easily replaced. Lock is a position nationwide where there's a bit of a shortage, so we've had to fight really hard to help grow some local guys that were here and we've brought one or two in.

'So we're pretty comfortable that we've filled the gaps but I'd be lying if I said that experience isn't going to be missed at certain times of the year.”

The return of Steamers icon and former All Black Tanerau Latimer is doing a lot to fill that experience deficit, however.

'He's somebody who's been there and done that,” says Clayton. 'We've contracted Lats on the basis that we accept that his body isn't what it once was, but all that intellectual property and the standards that he drives both on the field and off in our environment – you can't put a price on that.

'He's already contributed immensely through our preseason and I imagine that's only going to continue to grow through the season.”

Waikato were relegated from the Premiership last year, but you won't get Clayton admitting the Bay's traditional nemesis are their main rivals for promotion.

'I'd be better placed to tell you after week one of the competition. Everyone holds their cards pretty close to their chest, no-one shows too much during the preseason.

'The reality is that if we worry too much around what others are going to bring we'll probably get caught with our pants down.

'The way I like to put it is that year on year everybody gets better. The challenge is to accelerate your growth a little bit more than the opposition so that when the big games come you win them.”

Facing all four of the Premiership teams the Steamers will meet in the first five weeks of the competition is less than ideal, Clayton admits, but in typical fashion also sees it as an opportunity.

'If I'd been able to pick my own draw I wouldn't have designed it the way we've got this year. It's a brutal competition but we're certainly taking the angle there's more opportunity to strike some of those big guns early than get them later in the season.

'It doesn't really matter when you get them, you've just got to be accumulating points right through the season.”