Northern Jets coach Mitch Robinson admits they have some catching up to do when it comes to recruitment for the 2017 season.
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Robinson was appointed a month before Christmas and the departure of up to a dozen senior players makes for a tough welcome.
The late harvest hasn’t helped but the Jets hope to announce some new faces later this month.
“I’ve made a lot of phone calls,” Robinson said. “It’s been hard because a lot of blokes doing the recruiting have been doing harvest but we’ve had a couple of blokes agree over the phone. The next few weeks we should sort a few out.”
The departures list includes their four recruits for 2016 – Canberra trio Justin Mesman, Mark Kimball and Tim Gray, and ruckman-forward Josh Plozza – as well as locals Mitch Maguire, Brad Moye, Max Tidd, Joe Grinter and Jacob Bell.
“We need to replace them because we didn’t have much depth last year,” Robinson said.
Star midfielder Mitch Haddrill will again headline their list, along with their best-and-fairest runner-up Declan O’Rourke and the Fisher brothers.
Robinson said they’ve had reasonable numbers at non-compulsory training prior to Christmas, even amid harvest.
The club hasn’t given up on securing a couple of travelling recruits but Robinson’s also hoping to sign players who will be at training during the week.
