THE Hamilton Kangaroos will head down to Bushfield Oval to open its HFNL Open netball season against the North Warrnambool Eagles.

Some new faces are among the squad for 2023, but the Roos will be without Ella Sevior and Hayley Sherlock for the season opener.

Roos coach, Emma Sommerville said excitement was building and she was confident the team would be competitive despite missing two key players.

“It will vary a little bit compared to what we were thinking would be our starting seven,” she said.

“It is not how we wanted to start, but we will still have all Open players starting on the court.

“I am really looking forward to playing North, they are a really clean team and a great group of girls to play against.”

With the Eagles tipped to be one of the teams in contention at the business end of the season, it will give the blue and white an immediate gauge on where the group sits against one of the stronger teams in the HFNL.

Sommerville said the team would embrace the challenge, but would focus more on the way they played on the court.

“It will be a really good challenge, and I know what we want to focus on,” she said.

“It’d be an ideal way to start the season if we can get the four points, it is always the goal going into every game.

“We know North will be strong competition, they always are.

“Because we have got quite a few new faces and have been working on a lot of things, we don’t know how much it has been ingrained into players.

“You hope when we get into gameday, it works, and hopefully that we are smart enough netballers to sort it out if structures fall apart at times.”

The game gets underway at 1.20pm.