Lambton Jaffas have quickly filled the void left by Northern NSW NPL leading scorer Braedyn Crowley with the recruitment of Kale Bradbery from Broadmeadow for 2020.
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Bradbery, who won the grand final with Jaffas in 2014, has been with Magic the past five seasons and is a former NNSW state league leading scorer with the Newcastle Jets Youth team.
The striker was also a National Youth League top scorer after gaining an opportunity with the Jets following an impressive start to his senior career at Broadmeadow.
Jaffas were shocked to lose Crowley, a former Jets and Melbourne City A-League player, to reigning premiers Maitland this month, but they found a quality replacement alongside fellow star recruits Mitch Oxborrow (Broadmeadow) and Scott Pettit (Hamilton).
Oxborrow was the Graham Jennings medallist this year, while Pettit is also a former league player of the year.
Jaffas coach James Pascoe, who brought Bradbery into the Jets youth system when he was involved, was pleased to get the fleet-footed striker back to Lambton.
"Kale has been extremely close to coming back a couple of times over my four years at the club," Pascoe said.
"He's always someone I've had a close relationship with, and when Braedyn decided to accept Maitland's offer, it put us in the position to act and sign someone, and Kale was top of the list."
Broadmeadow coach Anthony Richards was disappointed to lose another top-line player. Bradbery and Oxborrow were part of Magic's 2018 grand final victory.
"Kale was pretty good with the boys and the crowd loved him as well, so they'll miss him," Richards said.
"Kale always tried really hard and he's a terrific guy."
But Richards, who has taken over from Ruben Zadkovich as head coach, was excited to see the younger brigade at Magic take their chance.
Skipper Josh Piddington and Justin Broadley are also losses for Magic, through retirement, but 2018 Graham Jennings medallist Sam Walker is an addition from Lake Macquarie.
"Guys like Jacob Dowse, David Ifield and Jeremy Wilson, they should be looking at this and saying this is a great opportunity," Richards said.
"And we've still got Sam Walker, John Majurovski, Kristian Brymora and James Virgili there in attack."
Luke Virgili will be the new captain at Broadmeadow.