Last year Robertson lost 1-0 in overtime to Wests in the Illawarra competition before returning to the Highlands to win the Highlands cup.

But the Robertson team to line up on Saturday will be markedly different from last year's with a number of the town's best sportsmen down to play in cricket grand finals also on this weekend.

The season was scheduled to start on April 4 but it was brought forward by one week when Moss Vale pulled out of first grade.

Robertson have yet to name their captain for 2009, but last year's captain Damian Gair said Mark Bisby, Daniel Campbell, Mitch Wright and Ben Wright would all be unavailable this week because of the cricket finals.

"It's a bit of a shambles at the moment," he said.

"The start of the season has come up pretty quickly on us but we'll be right."

It is believed Robertson will try to pick up some players out of Burrawang's second-grade team to fill the void.

"It could be a bit of a slow start to the season for us and this week we'll just be out to blow a few cobwebs out," Gair said.

MITTAGONG looked the best prepared of the Highlands team ahead of round one this week with the team already having trained together three times before the competition's first whistle.

That's three times more than Bowral and twice more than Robertson.

Coach Glen Isedale said his team had picked up a couple of players from Moss Vale who were supposed to be playing in the Moss Vale/Kiama joint venture before it fell through.

Last year's Highlands finalist, Mittagong square off against Albion Park in round on on Sunday.

"We probably won't go as well as we should have just because of the early start," Isedale said.

BOWRAL has forfeited its round one match against the University of Wollongong after a misunderstanding about when the season was supposed to start.

Bowral have yet to hold a training session and could not muster enough numbers to make Sunday's trip to Wollongong worthwhile.

Coach Jules Linolli said the club had 12 first-grade players on its books, but they had not intended on playing until the start of May.

Linolli was confident the team would be right for round two.

He said his job in the meantime was to get his team to bond.

"I think the younger blokes have relied on the older guys to organise a lot of the social stuff and they now need to step up and help get the team together a little bit more," Linolli said.

Bowral's best player Jye Bunt has signed up to play rugby league with Mittagong this season but Linolli hopes he will be available to play hockey on Sunday afternoons.

Striker Glen Turner will also be missing until the Australian Hockey League finishes as he is tied up with the Canberra Lakers.

"We'll be relying on some local players to come through the club and into first grade," Linolli said.

Striker Cameron Marshall and centre Matthew Kelly are two of the youngsters expected to make the step up.