Lake Albert coach Rob Nicoll was excited to have the pair on board

Haydn Pascoe and Connor Bock will both play for the Bulls on a permanent basis this season after making appearances for Lake Albert in the past.

Newly appointed coach Rob Nicoll was excited to have the pair on board and believed the duo would add quite a bit to the Bulls' side.

"They are both high quality players," Nicoll said.

"Especially Haydn, he's represented Riverina Opens for quite a while now and bats in the top order and it's going to be good to work with those guys.

"In regards to Haydn, obviously he's a very high quality top order stick and hopefully he can get us off to some greats starts and can have a really big year and put runs on the board early which will take pressure off the middle and lower order to be able to do their jobs.

"With Connor, he adds just a bit of extra ball speed up front with our bowling lineup.

"Our bowling lineup is a bit young and inexperienced and he adds a bit of pace and that's probably one area that we are lacking at the moment but he's definitely got that."

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Nicoll believed the pair would be the only recruitment the Bulls do ahead of the season as they look to continue to make the most of their talented juniors who are developing.

"That's really it for recruitment and both Haydn and Connor have played for Lake Albert before and they've had an affiliation with the club," he said.

"Lake Albert has already got a lot of good young players and good players there already so you don't really need to go out and recruit.

"We will stick to what we have now and continue developing them."

The Bulls look to have retained their entire senior group from last year with Beau Edmunds likely to be the only one who will have a delayed start to the season and is expected to be available close to Christmas.

Lake Albert has already begun some strength and conditioning training ahead of the season and Nicoll has been impressed with the amount of numbers they have seen so early in their campaign.

"We've already started some pre-season, not necessarily hitting or bowling bowls," he said.

"More around some strength and conditioning stuff and now that we are into August we will start to hit some balls.

"First few sessions we had between 10 to 20 each time and then on Monday night we had about 15 all up which is fantastic.

"That's way more than I've ever had at any pre-season session that I've run before particularly on strength and conditioning.

"Those guys that are playing footy and soccer we actually give them the nights off as they are already doing their work.

"But those that aren't playing winter sports it's good for them to get there and to have that many I was really pleased with."

Nicoll knows that bringing in two quality talents like Pascoe and Bock will see higher expectations be set for the Bulls this season and he was looking forward to the challenge ahead of meeting those.

"I guess once you do bring in recruits from outside and particularly one of Haydn's ability there is going to obviously be higher expectations from around the competition that you have to perform well if you go and do those things," he said.

"So we'll look forward to the challenge."

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