Kempsey Saints Football Club held their season launch and senior shirt presentation at the West Kempsey Hotel on Thursday night.
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The club celebrated their record number of registered players with 430 players across 42 teams signed up for the 2017 season. There is still availability for late registration in the Under 9s and 10s age groups.
There will be five home games at Eden St on Saturday to kick off the season for the seniors while the junior competitions begin next weekend.
The Premier League side, coached by Matt Baker, will take on Port United at 3pm, with reserve grade at 1.15pm.
Saints Coaching Coordinator Kevin Sinclair said the side has built on their FFA Cup performance.
“Matt Baker has been working hard imprinting his style of play across the squad and the recent FFA cup match was evidence they are capable of producing quality football,” Sinclair said.
“Saturday will require the full 90 minutes against United who are always tough opponents. The squad is down a couple of players and it looks like some juniors will get the call up.”
The Women’s Green team will be in action while the White side has a bye.
“Saints is proud that its female football program is going so well and in a history making season is the only club in the competition to field two ladies teams,” Sinclair said.
“The premiership winning side from 2016 has been split to accommodate all the new players.”
The Luke Flanagan coached Northern League Green Machine side faces Lake Cathie and Sinclair said it will be interesting to see how the team bounces back.
“It was only a goal keeping blunder in last year’s final that saw them miss out on competing in the grand final,” he said.
“Flanagan has been working this side hard in the off-season and although without last year’s club golden boot Corey Pratley and with several other changes supporters will be expecting another late-season charge from this side.”
The final game for the day is the James Brady coached NL-White team taking on Port United at 4pm. Brady has his first season as head coach of a senior side at Saints and there are a lot of fresh faces in his team.
All supporters are welcome at Eden St, with full canteen facilities available and should be plenty of action across both fields.
