They face an opening round showdown against highly-fancied Newcastle Olympic with most experts labelling them as competition favourites.

"We had issues getting players to training when we first started,'' Grass said.

"Then we've had to call off planned trial games, first because of the heat and then the rain. But it has been more positive recently and the session we had this week was our best so far.''

Mid Coast FC made a comeback to the WPL last year but it was a difficult campaign for the young squad.

The team finished in equal last place and Grass admitted his players struggled to adapt to the pace of the premier league along with the travel.

Eight clubs contest the WPL, the majority based in Newcastle.

However, Grass is confident Mid Coast will improve this season.

He explained that Newcastle Olympic is the former Wallsend side.

"They finished fifth last season and they're always tough,'' Grass said.

"So it's certainly not going to be an easy first-up game.''

Grass said he'll be looking for the classy Courtney Anderson to step up for Mid Coast this year while he added some of the younger members look promising.

Earlier Grass had hoped to snare a player with W-League experience to bolster this squad.

"But that's not happening unfortunately,'' he said.

"She went to another club.''

Mid Coast will play the opening three games of the season at Taree. While the home ground advantage is always helpful, Grass said the team will then face a string of games on the road.

"And playing at Taree can present problems at this time of year because of the heat,'' he added.

"I think we need a Plan B for our early season home games. We can't get access to Port Macquarie, but we should possibly look at Tuncurry.''

The season will run for 21 rounds. Sunday's game will start at 3pm.

Meanwhile Justin McIntyre from Football Mid North Coast reports that clubs around the zone still have some limited vacancies in various teams from juniors to seniors.

Final adjustments are in the process of being made after team nominations, before a complex draw process will take place.

Competitions are set down to start on Friday March 27.

Players who have not yet registered are urged to contact their local clubs soon to avoid missing places in squads.

Interested players can contact their club by heading to the FMNC club contact page - footballmidnorthcoast.com/fmnc-clubs/.

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