Maitland Magpies recruit attacking player Lucy Kell and midfielder Sophia Laurie with eye on NPLW NNSW finals appearance in 2023

The Magpies will be eyeing a breakthrough finals appearance in their third season of Northern NSW Football's premier women's competition after finishing fifth twice.

They were three points outside the top four this year and four points adrift when the 2021 league was cut short due to COVID.

Keelan Hamilton, who coached Maitland in 2021, has returned after a season in the men's NPL space and has retained the bulk of this year's squad.

Captain Sophie Stapleford will be back once her A-League commitments with the Jets are complete and other strike weapon Bronte Peel will feature during her mid-year break from playing in the United States college system.

"Top four is the progression we need to make in terms of a result perspective," Hamilton said.

"That's what we'd like to do. We'd like to progress. The other side is we want to have an identity and we want to perform to the maximum of our ability."

Meanwhile, beaten grand finalists Newcastle Olympic have added Elodie Dagg, Georgia Cook and Zoe Horgan from premiers and champions Warners Bay. The Panthers have lost most of their senior squad.

Neil Owens, who co-coached with Paul DeVitis this year, will be Olympic's head coach and Craig Atkins has come across from Warners Bay to assist.

DeVitis is also Olympic's NPLW technical director and has stepped aside from the first-grade coaching role but will still oversee the program.

Olympic have lost attacking players Keea Parrish and Chloe Kinde due to relocation. Centre-back Sophie O'Brien is having a season off after an injury-plagued year.

Jets captain Cassidy Davis has already announced she has gone to New Lambton from Warners Bay and ACM understands a numbers of other Panthers players have also joined the Eagles.

Charlestown Azzurri have picked up former Warners Bay striker Lily-Jane Babic, who did not play this year, and coach Niko Papaspiropoulos is hopeful of re-signing American Summer Taube. Taube had a stand-out campaign in midfield for Azzurri, who finished third but were knocked out by Olympic in the semi-finals.

MORE IN SPORT:

WHAT DO YOU THINK? We've made it a whole lot easier for you to have your say. Our new comment platform requires only one log-in to access articles and to join the discussion on the Newcastle Herald website. Find out how to register so you can enjoy civil, friendly and engaging discussions. Sign up for a subscription here.