Hughes was last month appointed coach for next year after serving as interim boss since Darren Sills parted ways with the club following round four. He guided Phoenix from one point to 12 over the next nine games.

While Hughes said he had players coming in, Hay, Read and Russell would not be back. Russell was relocating for work, while Hay and Read were going to other clubs.

Valentine had already lost goalkeeper Danny Ireland, who relocated to Sydney for work and did not feature after round eight.

Hay was a top recruit for Valentine from Lambton Jaffas in 2019, while Read and Ireland joined his year along with fellow former professional Hughes. Read is expected to return to Maitland.

"Most boys there will be coming back but a few will be moving on," Hughes said.

"Benny thought it was time for a change with his football, which I can understand, and Ready made a promise as to what he was going to do.

"They are both top guys, top professionals who have come in and worked hard.

"Riley is moving away with work commitments, but the door is always open to him."

He said the rebuild at Valentine started in the last round when the club could no longer make the finals.

"We were obviously having a look at some reserve grade players in the first team and the recruitment side of things has picked up," he said. "It's just a matter of pushing on with that now."

Hughes was pleased with the turnaround this year at Valentine after the slow start.

"We got to a certain level that I was happy with," he said.

"But really we had only 12 players from the first-grade squad and we had to pull players from reserve grade who hadn't had much experience in the first team.

"It was a year where a lot of guys got a lot of game time they wouldn't normally get with a bigger squad and some have come through and come out the other side a lot happier for the experience."

Sills has recently signed on to return to coach second-division club West Wallsend.