Lake Macquarie look for right balance in fight for NPL survival

Lakes have finished with the wooden spoon the past two seasons, and in three of the last four, in the NPL men's NNSW competition and will be under pressure to stay up when promotion-relegation returns.

Preston, a former Central Coast Mariners academy technical director, has taken over from Steve Piggott following a season where the Roosters earned four points in 22 games and a goal difference of minus 69.

He has brought sons Jordan and Cobe with him. Jordan played briefly at Lakes in 2022 and Cobe is a keeper from Central Coast United in NPL 2 NSW, where Peter coached last season.

Cade Thomson comes to Lakes also from Central Coast United, while former Jets and Mariners academy players Callum Richards and Jerome Abrahams are other recruits. Baden Rees and twins Jacob and Marcus Field are additions from Coffs Tigers.

The club's player of the year Chad Kubica, Nicholas Emanuel, Tomasz Kowalski, Charlie Buffon, Riley Tydd are among the departures, along with the experienced Jason Cowburn, Brock Oakley and Josh Maguire.

Preston hoped to add more experience to the squad before the season kick-off on February 24 against Lambton Jaffas but said "we are going to be pretty young, that won't be a secret".

"It will be a young squad and if we can then sprinkle it with a bit of experience, like Gui [Evangelista], and hopefully some other boys who have been around the club, like Isaac [Nyman], can step up," Preston said.

"I'm guessing some of the boys have played 40, 50 games so that's getting to good numbers where they can hopefully step up and share that experience, and we can build on that.

"And if we can find a couple of boys between say 25 and 28 who are keen and are going to contribute, obviously we'll try and get them on board as well.

"But if we have to go really young, that's what we will do, and give some players opportunities as well. That's with the mindset of knowing we need results so we don't get relegated.

"It's OK to play young kids but if you come last and get relegated, it's pointless, because they will want to stay in the top division and you lose them. It's a balancing act we've got to get right as a staff and I'm confident we can do that."

Last place in 2024 will be relegated, while second-last enter play-offs with second, third and fourth in second division to keep their spot.

After six weeks of training, Lakes' senior teams played trial games last Sunday against the Jets Youth sides. Reserve grade lost 4-3 and first grade went down 3-1 after it was 1-1 with about 20 minutes remaining.

Preston's Coffs Harbour trio were part of the match and will join the squad regularly after moving to the area in the new year to start university.

He said they competed in the NPL youth competitions before playing locally last season.

"They are all good young kids and they look promising," he said.

"They played the trial game on the weekend and they all did quite well."

Preston was part of the coaching team at Central Coast United this year when they finished last in second division and were relegated.

He said the goal for Lakes next year was to stay out of the bottom two.

"From working in Sydney with promotion and relegation, that should be every clubs' first goal, to make sure you don't get relegated," he said.

"I know the bigger clubs will have aspirations of winning it, but the mentality for us has to be to not get relegated then reassess after that.

"We've got some small goals for ourselves, but that's the main one for our club, with where they've been. Just making sure we avoid the bottom two.

"If we can bank some points early doors, then we'll reassess each week and see how we go."