Off-season departures and a boost in incoming players will see a different New England Nomads outfit to the one that took out last year’s title line-up for the first game of the New England North West AFL season.
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The Nomads face off against Gunnedah Bulldogs in their opening encounter off the back of five-straight premierships.
"The team is very different from last year, we probably had 10 players move on,” new coach Tom Hunt said.
"There are a lot of changes and we lost a lot of key senior players but we still have a pretty good core there, we picked up some new handy blokes too. Jeremy Ratcliffe, he has moved up from Victoria, he played some really good skills and a good, hard, physical player so he was a good pickup there.
"We have also picked up five or six good city players who have played previously.”
Hunt expects his side will be in for a tough first match.
"Going off last year, particularly the last half of last year, they were really good and just narrowly missed out on making the grand final so they are a good, physical team with a good core group who have been there a few years and they will be really tough,” he said.