Nelson Bay and Warners Bay will play the season opener on Saturday, April 11 at Dick Burwell Oval.

Both these teams missed the semi-finals last year and will be looking for a winning start, especially Warners Bay, which last year lost its first eight matches before storming home to narrowly miss the finals.

Nelson Bay have lost influential midfielders in best and fairest winner Blake Erickson (Southport); Jayden Rymer (Sydney Swans Reserves) and Ben Thompson (Broken Hill).

Coach David Ross' ability to cover these losses will have a bearing on this clash.

Warners Bay on the other hand are well placed to improve on their sixth-place finish last year.

With new coach Mark Bottrill at the helm, the Bulldogs have added Todd Krause (Wagga Wagga) to their squad and welcomed back best and fairest winners Matt Mahon and Nathan Brennan.

On Sunday, Cardiff will host Newcastle City at Tulkaba Park.

Sunday will also see Lake Macquarie honour former Newcastle City and Lake Macquarie Coach, Bob Hooten, who passed away suddenly last August.

There is never any love lost between the Hawks and the Blues and I expect Sunday to be no different.

Newcastle City have a new coach in Mitch Knight, but have retained a similar team to last year, when they were eliminated in the preliminary final.

The club has lost Matt Bailey overseas, and there is also doubt over the availability of key midfielders Anthony Stewart and Andrew Willmot.

On the plus side for the Blues is the acquisition of Aaron Seen (Tasmania) and Stephen Batten (Belconnen).

Young gun Conor Haswell turned down an offer to play in Sydney - a huge boost for the Newcastle City team.

Cardiff have also had a mixed off-season with the loss of arguably their two best midfielders Simon O’Brien and Liam Gibson, offset by the return of 2007 Elliott Davey Medal winner Tim Sheldon and the acquisition of Singleton captain Sam Brasington.

Adam Dugan has returned for his third season in charge and he has emphasised that he will again be working on developing the club's younger players.

The Blues had the wood on the Hawks last year so it will be interesting to see if Cardiff can reverse this trend in 2015.

2014 grand finalists, Terrigal Avoca and Killarney Vale have this weekend off as their round 1 clash has been scheduled for Anzac Day.

In first division, Maitland and Terrigal Avoca will battle at Max McMahon Oval.

In other matches, reigning premiers Wyong Lakes will open their 2015 campaign at home against Cardiff; Killarney Vale will host Singleton at Adelaide St Oval and on Sunday Lake Macquarie and Newcastle City will meet at Tulkaba Park.

Muswellbrook will open their campaign at home against The Entrance Bateau Bay in what should be an interesting second division match.