Claire Coelho may be eyeing her 10th national league season but the 26-year-old feels very much still in the early stages of her goalkeeping career.
The Port Macquarie product is one of several players the Newcastle Jets have confirmed in their 2022-23 A-League Women's roster.
Coelho debuted for the Jets in 2014. After making only 10 appearances in her first six seasons, the criminal lawyer has been Newcastle's first-choice goalkeeper for the past three campaigns.
"I've only played 44 games coming into a 10th season," Coelho said. "For a goalkeeper, you don't hit your prime early but it also does take that little while to build up your phase of things as well.
"I definitely want to get more game time and, whilst I've been around for a while, I'm still in the early phase of my playing career in terms of games and experience.
"I've definitely got more time in me, I just need to get my body right. I'd love to get my 50 games for the club. That would be a nice achievement to get this season. For the team, improvement has to be the biggest thing for everybody."
The Jets have only twice made finals since the A-League's inception - they played semi-finals in 2008-09 and 2017-18 - and are targeting a return after some disappointing results in recent seasons.
"There just can't be any excuses and, whilst our effort has always been there, it's just unfortunately not acceptable to finish where we have in the last few seasons, and everybody feels the same about that," Coelho said.
"As a team the goal is to definitely improve on where we sit on the ladder."
Coelho is one of four re-signed players already announced by the club along with midfielder and captain Cassidy Davis, centre-back Taren King and scholarship-holder Lara Gooch.
Adamstown captain and left-back Leia Puxty has earned her first A-League Women's contract and the Jets unveiled the first of their international signings on Wednesday in American defender Emily Garnier.
Newcastle have parted ways with defenders Gema Simon, Tiana Jaber and Kirsty Fenton, attacking players Sunny Franco and Sophie Harding, midfielder Bethany Gordon plus imports Elizabeth Eddy (United States) and Marie Dolvik Markussen (Norway).
The Jets are set to open their 2022-23 campaign on the road against Brisbane on November 19.
Coelho is hoping to be fit and firing when pre-season begins mid-October after her longest ever break from football.
The shot-stopper carried an ankle injury through last season and underwent surgery on it in May.
"It has been quite a change because it's been in the off-season so rehab has been pretty much by myself and not around the team, so that's been the difficult thing," Coelho said.
"But I've been well supported by the physio and at UBF gym and it has given me time to do fitness in a different way. I've really gotten into bike riding.
"It's been different but it's been kind of nice after 10 seasons of playing for so long just to have that change, but at the same time, I need to get my fitness back and be really ready to go for the season.
"I'm back running and shot-stopping. It's just building up that kicking phase and the tolerance on the foot. But my goal is to have a good, injury-free pre-season. It will be a battle for the spot, so that will be something as well."
Newcastle's first home game is against Western Sydney Wanderers on November 26 at a venue yet to be confirmed.
Their remaining eight home games will all be played at No.2 Sportsground with a focus on family friendly time slots.
They play Roar, Wanderers, Sydney, Perth, newcomers Western United, Adelaide, Melbourne City and Canberra United all twice and Wellington and Melbourne Victory once each.
The competition has expanded to 11 teams with the addition of Western United. Wellington Phoenix joined last campaign and Central Coast Mariners will play in 2023-24.
