Weston tuned up with a 2-all draw against Valentine at Rockwell Automation Park last Sunday, opening the scoring through Nathan Morris from a first-half penalty and Jackson Burston adding another in the second half.

The final trial before the season proper followed a 6-0 win against Northern League One team Toronto-Awaba on Wednesday night.

The Bears have a new coach in former Kiwi international Leo Bertos and a sprinkling of fresh faces added to a youthful squad which has potentially the most upside for improvement of any team in the Northern NSW NPL.

Weston finished fifth on 37 points in 2019, just one point behind second to fourth placed Lambton, Edgeworth and Broadmeadow Magic.

The Bears will be without Liam Wilson for the start of the season, after he broke his leg in a motorcycle accident during the break, and last year's leading scorers Dutch import Jason Tjine-Fooh (nine) and Regan Lundy (eight) who has transferred to Charlestown.

The upside is that Cooper Buswell has decided against taking a year off and the Bears have added to their defensive stocks with Olympic's Marcus Duncan signing after returning from Melbourne where he was to play with the Melbourne Knights in the Victorian NPL.

Weston has also added Jarryd Sutherland (Olympic), Connor Heydon (Adamstown), Musa Kamara (Charlestown) and Aaron Niyonkuru (Valentine) to their line-up.

The Bears led twice on Sunday but basic errors allowed Valentine back into the game for the draw.

"No one really stood out, everyone did their job really well," Bears assistant coach Craig Stoker said.

"We could have been three or four up at least at half-time but we were a bit rusty on finishing and their goalkeeper made a couple of good saves."

Meanwhile, Cessnock City Hornets resume their Northern League One season after almost four months when they host Thornton Redbacks on Sunday at 2.30pm. The Hornets beat Singleton 3-1 in round one and had the bye before the break.