The Weston Bears resume their preparations for the 2023 season with a trial match against Sydney team Macarthur Rams at Rockwell Automation Park on Saturday.
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The Bears will meet the Rams in first grade at 2pm and reserves at noon. Entry is free.
The game is the first of a series of trials at home with a game against another Sydney side Blacktown Spartans on January 28 and then Northern NSW NPL rival Valentine on Saturday, February 11.
The Bears had several trials including games against the Newcastle Jets and Sydney team North West Sydney Spirit prior to Christrmas
Weston returned to the training track this week with coach Kew Jaliens returning from holidays in The Netherlands with family and scouting of prospective recruits.
Weston football director Leo Bertos said the club was still working on its recruiting for 2023.
"We're still working on a couple of players to finalise the first grade squad," Bertos said.
"We've been concentrating on building the squads underneath getting more numbers and bit more quality in our 18s and reserves with an eye on our future.
"The majority of the first grade squad has been retained. It's just getting those last couple of players of quality who can take us to the finals in not winning the competition.
"It's something we will take our time with. We are potentially targeting another defender. We're also desperate to get one key attacker to come into the goal.
"We lacked a few goals last year, we need someone to come in and play a role like Braedyn Crowley did in conjunction with Jimmy Thompson.
"I think Braedyn's a stand out and I'm surprised an A-League club hasn't picked him up again.
"We are missing someone like that who is a presence and get you a good few goals in the season.
"Kew has been scouting for players and watching a few games. He has identified a couple of players and we're hopeful we can bring them across.
"If we get those players right then we will be pushing the club to where it belongs."
The Bears finished eighth in 2022 after being in contention for a top-five place and finals for much of the year and will look to the core from last season, a couple of key recruits and the development of some promising young players to take them forward.
"We've got a couple of guys with potential, but they are still very young. We see them as future first graders so we want to start integrating them.
"Mitch Dobson coming back from the US and will be a very handy addition for us.
We've brought another keeper in to work with Stuie (Stuart Plant), who was injured last year and missed a few months with a neck injury.
"We realised we needed the insurance of a second quality keeper and Gerard Roebuck has come to us from the NSW NPL."
The Bears have a tough start to the season with away games against top three teams Broadmeadow Magic in round one on March 4 and Lambton Jaffas in round two on March 11 before their first home game in round three against Edgeworth.
Michael Hartshorn
Since starting in 1985 at the then Melbourne Herald, journalism has taken me around Australia from Victoria, to the Northern Territory, Cairns in Queensland and now Port Stephens. After all those years there is still something special about informing and connecting with readers.
Since starting in 1985 at the then Melbourne Herald, journalism has taken me around Australia from Victoria, to the Northern Territory, Cairns in Queensland and now Port Stephens. After all those years there is still something special about informing and connecting with readers.
