Tamworth FC will be without one of their most senior players while their captain's 2021 Northern Inland Premier Division season is up in the air.
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Troy Hearfield was thought to have played his last game for Tamworth FC in 2019 before work brought him back to town allowing him to play half of FC's games last year.
Coach Wayne May said that wouldn't be the case in 2021 with Hearfield's move away from Tamworth now permanent while captain Ross Price is spending a lot of time away for work.
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"He still lives here but he's working a fair bit in Wauchope at the moment," May said of Price.
"He's working over there but I'll catch up with him, see what he wants to do and where he's situated.
"If we lose both of them it'll be a big hole to fill but we have other guys ready to step up."
They include a raft of young players - some who have already had a taste of first grade.
Nguyen Nguyen and Tristan Reed both played a handful of first grade games last year and May expected them to feature more prominently in 2021.
Michael Lewington didn't play first grade but was another player May expected to take a step up this season.
"They've been with us the last three years and we'll be looking at giving them a run in first grade," May said.
Forward Joe Botfield was another Tamworth FC player pushing for a first grade spot while May was also excited to see Bagus Udayana - who trained with FC but missed the registration cutoff last season - on the pitch.
"He came late last year but it was too late to sign him up - he goes alright," May said.
"He's quite skilful on the ball but he missed training last week with an injury he picked up playing futsal."
Tamworth FC have had a disjointed start to pre-season training thanks to the recent rain and when they have taken to the park, May said they were "not getting huge numbers to training".
"The most we've had is 18," May said.
"We're just getting blokes into that mindset - football is a couple months off and we've gotta get stuck into it."
The club has no trials scheduled and will likely use the Johnson Cup as their launch pad into the 2021 season.
The club will hold a junior registration day this Saturday at the Courts @ East from 9am to 11am.
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Ben Jaffrey
Ben is a content curator and journalist for The Land. He has been with ACM since 2015 and first worked at The Area News and then at the Northern Daily Leader. Ben first joined ACM Agri as a digital journalist for all seven agricultural mastheads in 2022 before shifting to The Land full-time in 2023.
Ben is a content curator and journalist for The Land. He has been with ACM since 2015 and first worked at The Area News and then at the Northern Daily Leader. Ben first joined ACM Agri as a digital journalist for all seven agricultural mastheads in 2022 before shifting to The Land full-time in 2023.
