The Magpies travel to Taree on Sunday for their season opener against Mid Coast FC and if they can find their way past former Newcastle Jets keeper Claire Coelho they should get the three points.

But from there they face last season's top two Newcastle Olympic and premiers Broadmeadow Magic followed by Charlestown Azzurri who are tipped to be a big improver and a top four side.

In other news:

"We've got a really strong start to the season in terms of our opposition. We've got some good tests with Mid Coast first up then straight into Olympic, Magic and Azzurri," Magpies coach David Walker said this week.

"The first three or four rounds are really going to allow us to see where we are at. I'm really looking forward to all those games.

"Meeting them early I see as a positive as it really allows us to benchmark ourselves and I'm confident we can get a result out of those games."

While a number of teams, in particular Azzurri and premiership favourites Warners Bay, have been busy in the player market securing A-League Women's experienced players, Maitland has adopted a policy of recruiting players to complement their attacking style of play.

Walker is a fan of boosting the talent across the competition and will be open to recruiting ALW experience players who fit Maitland's style of play.

Maitland has added exciting midfielder Sophie Jones, from Mid Coast and New Lambton, and young attacking player Chelsea Greguric from the Emerging Jets and Toria Campbell bolsters the backline in her return from injury.

"The new players coming into the team looked like they've always been there. They've been a really good fit it terms of a cultural and team standpoint," Walker said

"The primary focus is going to be our attacking third, having strengthened that space with Sophie Jones, the utilisation of our top flight youngsters in Bronte Peel and Mercedes McNabb and throw in Sophie Stapleford in that mix. We're planning on exploiting that as much as we can.

"Our build up in preseason has been about our use of the ball and possession. The players are adapting really well to that and as time goes on it will allow us to move the ball a lot quicker and our game plan will be possession based, fast ball movement with a really attacking attitude."

Walker said the team's preparation had been hampered by the rain over recent weeks, but nearly all clubs were in the same position.

"We still kept our physical condition with gym sessions and indoor sessions," he said.

"Unfortunately, our last trial match against Mid Coast was washed out two weeks in a row so we're one trial match short of where we wanted to be, but obviously most of our competitors are in the same boat.

"The only player won't have ready for this week is Maddie Gallegos, it might be round two or three before we see her on the park.

"We're all extremely excited to be getting the season underway."