Former Socceroo Thompson, 38, and Wood, 36, played together at Maitland in 2015 and again in 2019, when the Magpies won the Northern NSW NPL premiership.

This year, Thompson played at Lambton Jaffas after five seasons at Maitland.

Wood is returning to Valentine, where he played in 2018 before two more seasons at the Magpies, which both ended in grand final defeat.

Thompson, who played 221 games in the A-League across stints with Newcastle, Melbourne Heart and Sydney FC, is a former junior teammate of Hughes. The pair then competed against other in the A-League.

Hughes, also 38, plans to play on next year while continuing as head coach. He took over as interim coach in 2020, four rounds into his first season at the club, after the exit of Darren Sills.

Hughes guided the side from one point to 12 in nine games at the helm and he hoped the recruitment of youth and experience would help them rise from ninth spot in 2021.

"It's good experience to come in," Hughes said of signing Wood and Thompson.

"And we've promoted a few from reserve grade into the squad. Then there's some other younger boys, Adam Mlinaric from Broadmeadow, Matt Dobson from Edgeworth and a few others are on the cusp of possibly coming as well.

"I wanted to get some experience in certain areas and also give some decent youngsters a chance to kick on in their career. It makes for some great balance."

Dobson, the brother of Weston signing Mitch Dobson, is an attacking player, while Mlinaric is a central defender who was captain of Magic's reserve grade grand final-winning team this year.

The additions will help counteract the departures of Jacob Bailey (Olympic), Alex Read (Maitland), Ben Hay (Jaffas) and Riley Russell (work commitments) from this season's squad.

Goalkeeper Danny Ireland left mid-season and was replaced by Jets youth product Keegan Hughes, who is returning in 2021.

Player-coach Hughes hopes to make more signings but said he was already pleased with the promising talent in the club's ranks.

"There were positive performances there, especially from the younger guys that were coming through," he said of 2020.

"They are going to add some good depth to the squad and there still could be some younger ones coming in as well."

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