The Northern Jets have revealed a handful of signings to offset some of their departures from last season.
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Coolamon pair Luke McLoughlin and Hayden Leary have made the switch to the Farrer League club, while former Hopper Zac Bradley will return to football, travelling from Canberra.
“Zac’s another tall, Luke played fullback for Coolamon but he can also swing forward and Hayden has played about 50 first grade games – he’ll add some grunt to the midfield,” Jets coach Mitch Robinson said.
Former junior Aidan Cattle is another tall, returning after a year at Albury Tigers, where he played 15 reserve grade games. And ex-East Wagga-Kooringal ruckman Jordon Wood will also add some size.
The Jets have also picked up Darcy Booth, an intriguing signing from Hay.
“He’ll be used forward and through the midfield a bit,” Robinson said.
“I’m looking forward to working with him, he’s shown some good signs at training.”
The Jets are looking to counter the departures of last year’s recruits, Josh Plozza, Justin Mesman, Tim Gray and Mark Kimball – all of whom were travelling recruits by season’s end – as well as a number of promising youngsters.
Robinson is happy with their list so far but still hopes to land a couple more signings before the season starts.
His big focus is on having numbers at training and the pre-season attendance has been pleasing so far.
“We had about 23 people there (last training), which I’m pretty happy with for pre-season,” he said.
“Obviously we’ve lost a few from last year that we’ve tried to replace and I want as many as we can get to training.
“The blokes who have come across from Coolamon (including previously-signed Zac Robinson), they’re going to be at training all the time and I think that’s a big advantage for us come the end of the season.
“We’ve also added depth to our reserve grade, with our two coaches Adam Ryall and James King really helping there.”
The Jets have two practice matches locked in – against Ganmain-Grong Grong-Matong and Hume League club Lockhart – before the season starts at The Rock on April 8.