After initially believing they wouldn't have enough players to field a team in the 2020 AFL North West competition, the New England Nomads have rallied and will line up this year.
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The Nomads withdrew earlier this year after the University of New England halted operations due to the coronavirus pandemic.
They were consequently criticised for being too reliant on the university to draw players from but returning coach, James Treweeke, said a push from a core group of town-based players has seen the Nomads throw themselves back into contention.
"Not so many uni students," he said.
"We have probably got another two or three [students] that are coming back up but a lot of the boys in town have got onto their mates and said 'if you're keen, come down and play.'
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"I think we've got a core group of 16 or 17 which we thought was probably enough, you can always get extras for games from week-to-week."
It won't just be newcomers to the team making up the numbers either.
There's plenty of familiar, premiership-winning faces to build the team around including Tom Hunt, Dave Richards, Wulu Hall, Jonathon Frost and Morgan Dunn as well as Treweeke.
They won't, however, be fielding a women's or under-17 team this year.
"We are only going to have a senior men's team this year because juniors, going from last year's numbers to this year, we just didn't have the players," Treweeke said.
"And the women's team, we just didn't have enough interest to warrant putting a team in.
"Hopefully over the next few months we can build up a lot of interest and get trainings going again and build towards next year."
The AFL NW competition is scheduled to commence on July 18 and the Nomads aren't wasting anytime with training beginning on Thursday from 5.30pm at Bellevue Oval.
Treweeke is still hoping more people signal an interest in playing, regardless if they have played before.
"Training has started and if anyone is keen just come down," he said
"We will take anyone on this year.
"Even if anyone wants to get involved in the club too; social, game day stuff, we will appreciate anything."