THEY are the new faces - each with different stories - how they made the final selection for Port Macquarie Makos ahead of this weekend's NSW State Cup.
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Luke Bullus, Lexi Campbell and Jacob Prince will all have different roles to play when their teams start their annual campaigns on Friday.
Campbell will play in her first-ever State Cup while Prince will run around in his first senior State Cup tournament.
Bullus hopes it will be third time lucky as he attempts to again make his inaugural appearance.
"A couple of years ago I tore my pelvis playing hockey doing things I probably shouldn't have been doing, but the competitive spirit in me told me to keep going," Bullus said.
"That put me out for a year or two, then I tried out again and made the open side, then four weeks out I did a grade two tear in my calf muscle which put me out again.
"I always got told if you're not getting injuries you're not trying hard enough so I like to think I'm trying pretty hard."
Bullus and Port Macquarie's men's over 30s have their sights set on progressing to finals day with half the side made up of last year's men's opens team.
"Their expectation is to make the Sunday; we have four games Friday and four games Saturday and then a bye Sunday morning," he said.
"Eight games is a lot in two days, but we've been running around against the 20s boys and they keep saying they're a lot faster than the men's 30s are.
"I hope that's true because if they're as fast as them we're in a bit of trouble."
Campbell moved from Warren in central-west New South Wales at the start of the year to study medicine.
She said the team had made her feel welcome despite being one of the few new faces in Port Macquarie's women's 20s team.
"The girls are really good and quite understanding because a lot of them have played together before whereas I'm new so they give me a lot of tips at training," Campbell said.
They hope to progress further than their quarter-final appearance last year and the winger was looking to keep things simple.
"I just don't want to drop anything major that flies out my way; I'm a winger and the main thing they want from me is lots of talk," she said.
Prince will look to make the transition from junior State Cup player to pivotal senior State Cup player.
The main thing he has noticed is the difference in intensity between the two competitions.
"Seniors is a lot more work," he said.
"In juniors you can rely on someone else to do your job if you mess up, but in seniors you have to do your job right or the team doesn't click."
The Makos men's 20s have set a similar goal to the women's 20s - a quarter-final appearance - although Prince believes they can give the competition a shake.
"We'll take every game as it comes, but our aim is to make the grand final," he said.
Prince - alongside brother Brendan and father Wayne - will create their own piece of family history this weekend with the trio set to be the youngest players in each of their teams.
"All three of us are grommets so that's pretty cool, but I've got to pick up all the cones at training so that's a bit of a stitch-up."
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