Finalists across seniors and reserves in 2016, the Eagles won just once across both divisions last season to finish with percentages of 20.75 and 21.11.

A senior side carried by star skipper Hayden Chrzanowski conceded 12 100-point defeats while the reserves were handed 220 and 240-point losses in the second half of the season.

Yet the club is still thriving financially and having appointed a new coaching panel for 2020, president Wayne Thompson is optimistic of trampolining back up the ladder.

Former South Launceston TSL player Brodie Tiernan will return from a three-year break to coach the Eagles' senior side, with two more returning players - Chris Smith and Nick Davis - taking up assistant and reserves coach roles respectively.

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"Hopefully we're looking forward to a much-improved season on last year, everyone's keen," said Thompson, who thanked exiting coach Alan Perrin for doing a "terrific job" under tough circumstances.

"With rebuilding we're not going to aim for the stars this time around - [we want to] stabilise, recruit a few players in and be more than competitive for the first year.

"We know we need to recruit - we're financially very sound, but we know we need to recruit.

"Brodie's been out and about talking to people and hopefully we can pick up some quality recruits."

The Eagles have already had a team's worth of players at pre-season training and are typically high on numbers, but will need to find a new skipper following Chrzanowski's move to Melbourne.

Invited to train with VFL side Port Melbourne at the end of last season, the former Australian Maritime College student has taken up a new job interstate following two second-placed finishes in the club's best and fairest.

"He's going to be very hard to replace," Thompson said.

"He's just that type of guy - very good off-field, he did a lot of work with the club off-field and obviously a great leader because of his ability."

ELSEWHERE IN SPORT

Enter Tiernan - a first-time coach boasting playing experience in Melbourne, the TSL and NTFA representative football.

Back in the game after taking time off to care for his three-year-old son, the 25-year-old is excited to return to the club where his father won back-to-back premierships in 1994 and 1995.

"It's a good family club to be at," Tiernan said.

"It's an awesome team on and off the field so hopefully we can get back to where we were when I was playing here.

"The expectations are just to keep improving at the moment and hopefully get a few signings over the next few weeks and help us get off the bottom of the ladder.

"We'd like to win four games as the benchmark and then keep pushing. If we could get that together, get on the right track and get a few more [players] next year hopefully we can be eventually contending in the next three or four years."

While Tiernan grew up on Youngtown Oval, his reserves counterpart Davis only took up club football as a 28-year-old.

An Eagle in 2016 and 2017, the 31-year-old "football tragic" spent the last two seasons playing for West Alice Springs in the Northern Territory before winding back up at Uni to take on his first coaching role.

Davis said he was looking forward to slotting back into Tasmanian football after an eye-opening two years playing a different style of game.

"It's pretty different to playing here, the ground is always dry and it's just such a fast game up there," Davis said.

"The ball pings around back and forth a lot quicker and you need to be quicker and I'm not, so I found the going pretty rough at times there.

"I probably like to play a more contested style myself and in Alice I found it so hard for the fact that it's always moving around and you're just chasing.

"There's some smaller bodies though so you probably don't get banged up as bad - there's some good outcomes."

Uni-Mowbray won its last NTFA senior premiership in 2011, overcoming a 40-point deficit in the grand final to defeat Old Scotch by 11 points.