Weston Bears coach Leo Bertos knew he had to strengthen his squad in the off-season if they wanted to be a force in the Northern NSW NPL premiership race.
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He also knew he was overdue a smattering of luck after it deserted the Bears last season.
We'll find out about the luck soon enough, but he's absolutely delighted with the recruiting his club has done ahead of season 2021.
"We've made massive inroads," he says. "We're going in looking to win it, that's the goal."
The Bears lack of depth last season was heightened when COVID saw some players drop out, and then the loss of two key players for the season through injury right at the very start of the campaign.
"We lost striker Jackson Burston and attacking midfielder Liam Wilson for the season ... in fact they're only getting back in to training now."
Considering the setbacks, no one should be surprised by their middle of the table finish - five wins, five losses, three draws, 21 goals scored, 19 conceded ... all very middle of the road..
So their off-season recruiting efforts have been impressive indeed.
"We've got a new striker in Nathan Lozada, who's back from South America," Bertos said. "COVID cut his time there, but he's a good acquisition for us, a former Central Coast Mariners player.
"We brought keeper Stuart Plant in from Lakes. We only had one top grade keeper last season and when he was unavailable we were relying on young guys, so this will help strengthen us there.
"Mitch Dobson has joined. He's a good defender, comfortable on the ball, an intelligent player who knows when to tackle, he played Australian under 17s a few years back and came through at Edgeworth.
"They're all good players. And if we can get Jackson Burston and Liam Wilson healthy again, it's suddenly a much stronger looking squad.
'We've managed to retain pretty much all of last year's squad and the good thing about it is most of them are in that 21 to 23 years age bracket, so there's improvement in them, with a couple of older guys around them.
"There will definitely be competition for places which wasn't always the case last year when it got to the stage where it was who was available."
While the semis is the goal at the start, Bertos has a longer term plan in mind.
"We're trying to build something here, something that will last," he said.
"I want those younger players to improve, work hard. I want to build a style of Weston playing possession football, being patient, retaining the ball, and then exciting in attack.
"I believe in general, most teams don't value possession enough.
"It takes time and it won't happen overnight, but that's where we're heading."
A journo all my working life and never wanted to change, also a self confessed sports tragic.
A journo all my working life and never wanted to change, also a self confessed sports tragic.
