The Hanwood Leonard Cup side will get their title defence underway this weekend as they travel across to Wagga to take on Wagga United.
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It will be a mostly unchanged side that will head into the season looking to replicate their strong return to Football Wagga, and the team is keen to get onto the park according to coach Anthony Zuccato.
"It has definitely been a long and different year that's for sure," he said.
"They are definitely excited about getting back out on the field and getting some normality and defending our title that's for sure."
There will be one noticeable missing player from the Hanwood side from last season.
"The biggest change will be the loss of Tara Ceccato," he said.
"We will definitely be missing her this year, but hopefully she will be back next year.
"She just had a few little things that she needed to get sorted out."
Maree Cirillo will also be returning to the club to fill the void left by Tara Munro in goal.
"We lost our keeper but have been able to replace her with another great goalkeeper," he said.
"She (Cirillo) is a former Hanwood girl who has come back to play with us this year."
Zuccato is happy with how the side is coming together, given they only had a couple of weeks to prepare for the shortened season.
"Obviously with COVID and what we can and can't do for the first couple of weeks made it interesting, but there is starting to be a bit more normality there as well, which has helped.
"Another couple of weeks may have been better before the season started but happy to get underway."
This week will see the side take on Wagga United and Zuccato is expect a tough hit out.
"They were a good team last year, so I'm expecting them to be no different this weekend," he said.
"They might even be a little bit stronger. Just looking forward to a good strong first game."
The women's game will get underway at 10.30am at Rawlings Park 1 on Sunday.
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