Club president Lee Hinton hopes to finalise arrangements this week.

The Pirates are now homeless following a deliberately lit fire on March 28 that badly damaged the amenities block at the club’s ground at the Old Bar Reserve.

Mr Hinton was due to speak to council along with the Old Bar Clams Rugby Club. The Clams have already opted to move headquarters from Old Bar Reserve to the new facility and are scheduled to play their first home game next Saturday.

It was the preferred option of the Pirates to stay at Old Bar Reserve - the club’s headquarters since its formation in 1990 - despite the establishment of the new fields at Ocean Blue.

However, in the short term this is no longer possible because of the lack of dressing rooms and canteen.

Mr Hinton considers it unlikely there will be any work carried out at the reserve in the life of the current football season, meaning the Pirates won’t be playing there.

The club considered other avenues, including moving games to the Jack Neal Oval at Taree or even Harry Elliott Oval at Tuncurry. However, Mr Hinton said the preferred option at the moment is to play at Old Bar.

However, he admits there are some issues with the Ocean Blue field that will have to be resolved.

“We have a few concerns about parking along with fencing,’’ Mr Hinton said.

Mr Hinton was hoping to organise a meeting with Old Bar Clams president Tim Brown.

He understands the clubs would clash sometimes with home games during the season. When this happened at Old Bar Reserve the Clams started their game after the league had finished, with the match played under lights.

However, there’s no lights at Ocean Blue.

Mr Hinton said the Pirates would look at swapping games when this is possible.

“We’ve already swapped one game with Port City,’’ he said.

“But I want to sit down with Tim and work out a scenario that’s agreeable to both clubs.’’

Mr Hinton said the amenities, including dressing sheds and canteen facilities, are in top order at the new complex while the club has already started working on the field’s surface.

“Steve Collings has been in charge of that and the field’s looking pretty good,’’ he said.

The Pirates don’t have a home game until May 5 against Forster-Tuncurry.

“But if things aren’t ready by then we’ll look at changing that with Forster,’’ he added.

The Pirates will continue to train at Old Bar Reserve because of the lack of lights at Ocean Blue.

Mr Hinton was guarded on whether the move to Ocean Blue will be permanent.

“We’d have to see what council’s going to do at the reserve,’’ he said.

“We’re hoping to play at Ocean Blue for the rest of this year, but as for the future, I don’t know what will happen there.’’