We’re only a few days away from the Bermuda Hogges’ debut and I for one just cannot wait for the opening whistle to blow as we take on the Harrisburg City Islanders in our first game at the National Sports Centre on Friday.

It was with a sense of great relief last week that we unveiled the squad to the public — which as I’ve said in previous columns was a process that took far longer than we had anticipated.

We’re very happy with the players we’ve got at our disposal, and particularly with our two franchise players Damon Ming and Stephen Astwood, who Kyle (Lightbourne), Paul (Scope) and myself are confident will be great ambassadors for the Hogges both on and off the field.

If there was one disappointment, it was that North Village midfielder Keith Jennings has decided against joining us. All three of us rate Keith a lot and we certainly anticipated naming him as a franchise player at a later date as we look to increase the number to three or four.

I can understand Keith’s disappointment at not being made a franchise player from the outset, but we decided we would only have two to start with and once we had thought long and hard about the candidates, it was decided that we couldn’t accommodate him at this stage.

We would have loved to have had him on board because he is a quality player and he was an important part of our plans. But Keith has made his decision to play in the Island Soccer League instead and, I imagine, continue looking for other professional opportunities overseas, and we at the Hogges now have to move on. But I for one certainly wish him the very best of luck.

In choosing Stephen and Damon, we saw two individuals who not had much to offer on the field, but in the many different roles we would expect our franchise players to play away from the games themselves.

Both have experience of professional football and have an understanding of what is required of them under the Hogges’ strict regime. Both are likely to respond positively to that challenge and inspire others around them to do the same. We also anticipate our franchise players going into the schools, doing charity events and such like, and we believe that Stephen and Damon are just the sort of people we require to act as role models.

Talking of role models, I was disappointed with the ugly scenes of last Sunday’s FA Cup final where two Hogges players — Shaki Crockwell and Clevon Hill — were both sent off on one of the most important days on the local footballing calendar.

In Clevon’s case, he was sent off for two bookable offences which can easily happen in a competitive match. Violent, off-the-ball behaviour such as Shaki’s head-butt is just totally unacceptable, however, and I can reveal at this stage that we have decided from an in-house perspective to ban him for two games.

We agreed earlier this year with the Bermuda Football Association that any ban imposed on a player in the domestic leagues would be extended to cover any Hogges games as well. The BFA were concerned about the possibility that they could ban a player for a year for hitting a referee, or something along those lines, but then that player would swan off during the summer and play freely for the Hogges.

We were more than happy to accommodate the BFA on this, because from out perspective we have to show the players we are very, very serious about on-field discipline and will not tolerate bad behaviour from any Hogges player — whether they are representing their local club side or the Hogges.

On another note, Harrisburg arrive on the Island tomorrow afternoon, just over 24 hours before Friday night’s kick-off. Paul Scope had an opportunity to travel up to the US last week to watch them in action against the Cleveland City Stars (they drew 1-1 in the USL season opener) and reported back that they are a very physical and aggressive team who will give us an extremely tough game.

Paul’s quietly confident though having seen them that we will be able to give a good account of ourselves and I think the non-stop fitness and weights work we have been doing religiously over the last few weeks will be help us deal efficiently with their physical threat.

We’re almost certain of our starting XI and the system we’re going to play. I won’t let the cat out of the bag until game-day, but what I will say is that we intend to play to Bermuda’s strengths. And I think once the players reach a point where they really believe that they’re good enough to compete in the league, that we’ll see some very positive results.

I will be on the bench for Friday’s game and have enjoyed the whole process of getting match fit again over the past few weeks. The boys do tease me a bit about being an old man these days, but then I do something reasonably good in training and they realise that I still know what I’m doing!

Once again I’d like to take this opportunity to urge the fans to come and out and support the boys as a new era for Bermuda football begins.

The whole squad has worked so incredibly hard in pre-season and there’s a real excitement among the players about getting started. Their chances of doing themselves justice increase immeasurably if they were to play in front of a packed house at the NSC!

Tickets for the game and the season can be purchased at www.bermudaboxoffice.bm or at the gate. Also, a reminder that kids 15 and under get in for free when accompanied by a paying adult. I hope to see you all there for what will be an historic night.