The Heat held their trials at Bolton Park Stadium on Sunday and youth was the overwhelming theme from the turn-out.

While Maloney plans to welcome a number of experienced players back into the squad for next season, he was rapt with the enthusiasm of the young group that turned out to the trials.

"We had six or eight missing that are keen to have a run. It was a good turnout for a first trial and we had a lot of youth, a lot of young guys with some senior guys to come back into that," Maloney said.

Maloney hopes to welcome back the likes of Chad Bishop and Scott Hare for next season, but already the likes of Eddie Merkel and Jacob Edwards have returned.

"I'm looking to bring back a few other senior guys, bring them back around the youth. Chas Bishop if we can, Scott Hare, a couple of guys who have been around," he said.

"Eddie Merkel and Jacob Edwards are back in the team, which is good for us. Hopefully we have a handy squad but we'll know more in the new year and assess our goals from there."

At this stage, Maloney will welcome the interest from prospective players and keep everyone training together until the new year, when it will begin to get trimmed.

"From the trial, we'll have a squad of 15 to 20 and we're just going to train through for the rest of this year and then in the new year, we're going to look at where our numbers are at and we're going to break it down," he said.

"I'm planning on having a squad of nine players, with two development players and then a training squad of four or five players as well. At the end of it, there will be a squad of 15, with hopefully a good mix of senior players with some youth as well.

"We'll have this squad through to January and then make decisions after that."

The Heat were set to sit out of this year's Waratah League before the COVID-19 pandemic struck.

Maloney believes it is important to keep the city's young basketballers involved to ensure the Heat is around for years to come.

"That's a big goal of mine to have the younger players feed through the group as well," he said.

"A lot of them when the final selections are made, they'll probably miss out then, or go into a training squad but throughout the year, I'm going to be more than happy to have as many people around as possible.

"Development is a big thing for me and hopefully we can have a good team this year, but also good development and start getting the roots organised for the years to come."

Maloney hopes to pick up a player or two early in the new year when new arrivals move to Wagga through university and the RAAF.

"That plays a big part in not making final selections now, to give other guys a chance who couldn't be there to still come along and come to a few training sessions," he said.

Meantime, Wagga Blaze's trial set for last Sunday for postponed due to a number of players being unavailable. They plan to reschedule the trial soon.

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