Hoole underwent a shoulder reconstruction at the end of last season and hasn't played in any pre-season trial matches. He hopes to receive some game-time in the last of Newcastle's trials before it plays Central Coast Mariners at Central Coast Stadium on 11 October.

"We play the Young Socceroos in a trial on Saturday and we've got an intra-club trial the following week," Hoole told The World Game. "I'm aiming at the intra-club trial. That will be it before the comp starts.

"The team has played a fair few trials and Phil (Stubbins, the Jets coach) has probably got his team set for round one by now, so it's going to be hard to get back in by then.

"It would probably be very surprising if I got back in straight away, but I don't know for sure what Phil's plans are for me and where I sit within the team so I'll just have to wait and see what happens when it comes to the first game.

"It's a long season and opportunities come along. I'll just keep working hard and wait for mine."

Hoole, who turns 21 next month, says the frustration of having to go through extensive rehabilitation and be restricted in the amount of training he could do during the pre-season was frustrating, but something most footballers had to endure at some stage of their careers.

"Towards the end of last season I popped my shoulder out and damaged the ligaments," he said. "I could have tried to battle on, but it could have popped out at any time. It was bugging me and the surgeon said it was probably best to have it done. I had the operation in April.

"This has never happened to me before. I've never been out for this long, so it's pretty frustrating. This is the time of the year when everyone in the squad is gunning for positions and I haven't been able to play in any of the trials.

"But I've been back doing my own running for a while and now I'm pretty much back to full training with the squad. I'm doing really well and next week I can play some minutes in a game. It's good to be back. All I can do now is keep pushing at training and see what comes of that, I guess."

Hoole said that if he does miss the team for round one he will be glad to play youth-team football for the Jets instead.

"It would be great just to get some game-time, which I really need," he said. "I probably won't play long in the intra-club trial, just a short spell to start getting the legs going again."

Instead of playing, Hoole has had the different view of watching on from the sidelines as Newcastle works to get its act together for the new season.

The departures of Emile Heskey and Adam Taggart from the forward line will have a significant impact on how the team plays.

Asked what he had noticed, Hoole replied: "I think combinations in the front third are starting to come together quite well. We've played out of the back quite well, too.

"Phil is trying to implement a certain football style and if the playing group can see where he's coming from and we listen to him, we'll learn. It's all about what he wants us to do and I think all the players are buying into that and trying to take it out onto the pitch.

"A new coach is always going to want to introduce different things. We've had different coaches in the past who liked the team to play their certain style, and different players have their own styles as well.

"We were lucky enough to have 'Tags' there last season, banging in a lot of goals, and Emile was very strong up front as well. Now we've got Joel (Griffiths) and Jeronimo (Neumann) and Marcos (Flores), who all like to play good football in and around the box. They're working on combinations."

Hoole says his own style is still evolving and that he senses a great opportunity to take his game forward this season.

"I want to build combinations with the sort of players I mentioned, especially Flores," Hoole said. "He's going to be a real key for us this season. I like to play the style that fits in with those guys and which Phil wants us to play.

"I'm pretty comfortable going forward and to get back into the habit of doing that and combining with the players around me is what I'll be aiming to do when I get back."