David Ripley believes the added depth to the Northamptonshire squad can pay dividends come September.
More specifically, depth in the seam bowling stocks that have been built up at the County Ground which can lead a push towards the all-important top two spots in the second tier of the County Championship, a quest that begins on Wednesday against Glamorgan in Cardiff.
The arrival of Trent Copeland, Mohammad Azharullah and Steven Crook provides the club with added strength in an area that proved to an Achilles heel last season.
And head coach Ripley, who is about to embark on his first full campaign in the job, knows this is an area that can make or break a campaign.
He said: “It tends to be about seamers and injuries and if we’ve got the depth that we currently have then we can maintain our push through a season.
“We’d like to start well but if we’ve got the depth then when others flounder hopefully we can push through.
“I’m pretty confident that if we don’t start exactly as we want then we’ve got a squad to cope with that.
“We want to make a good start because we’re excited about the work we’ve done and everyone feels that we’re in a good place.
“It’s a good time of year and we’re not alone as every side will feel the same but we’ve got a good spring in our step.
“We’ve had a good tour to Barbados and we just want to get stuck in.”
“If we can get that right then I think we’ve got a chance of getting promoted. If we can deliver on the things that we’ve talked about then we should be alright.
“There are probably five or six counties who will feel they should be in the mix for promotion and I see us as being in that group.
“It’s about playing well and I’m excited about watching us do that.”
A good deal of column inches will be used up over the next month commenting on the amount of cricket that is crammed into the embryonic part of the summer but Ripley isn’t one of those in the opposition camp and thinks that routine can be a good thing.
“Although it’s early, I quite like the idea of getting four games under our belt and the whole routine of it,” he said.
“We can play from Wednesday to Saturday, have Sunday off, practice Monday, travel Tuesday then play again and get into the season properly.
“We’ve talked more, and while it’s a word that I’m not too keen on using, it’s a modern coaching phrase, about getting the right processes in place and how we’re going to go about performing better.
“It’s Stephen’s (Peters) bag really, about how we’re going to approach the game and the attitude needed for the season.
“It’s 64 days of turning up with the right attitude and being up for it as your skills can take care of themselves.”
Peters himself believes the squad has the physical attributes to compete with the top teams this season and that their progress will depend on their attitude over the course of the campaign.
“I don’t doubt that we’ve got the skills to do well, we’ve just got to get our attitude right over the full course of the season and that’s what I want to see from us,” said the county skipper.
“You’ve got your so-called big clubs who will always have strong squads, like Lancashire, but we’re more than capable of beating those teams.
“And if we can be strong at home and pick up some good points on the road then there is no reason why we can’t achieve that.”