Aloisi will wear his favoured number nine this season with his old shirt number failing to bring good fortune in his inaugural campaign with the Moore Park club.  

However, Grant is more than happy to pull on number 23 and highlights that it has been a lucky omen in numerous cases.  

He said: "I asked for 23 because it's a good number. A lot of good players wear it in a lot of different sports.  Michael Jordan.  Michael Clarke's got it in the cricket, Shane Warne used to have it, Beckham's got it.  So there're a lot of great sportsmen with it, and having it after Johnny is good too."  

Aloisi is delighted he will be wearing the traditional centre-forward's number this year. He said: "I'm a goalscorer and I think I should be wearing number 9. Most strikers wear number 9 and I'm sure it will bring me good luck this year.

 "I wore it while I was at Portsmouth, also at Coventry, and also for the Australian Olympic team, I wore it at the 2004 Olympics.  Number 9 has some good memories for me."

Among the other changes, Slovak international Karol Kisel will wear the number 6, vacant since Tony Popovic's retirement last season.  Brendan Gan will wear number 7, Antony Golec has chosen to resurrect lucky number 13, and exciting young striker, Kofi Danning will play in 11.

 "I'm extremely happy. It's the number I grew up playing in.  When I was a kid I scored a lot of goals in that number and it's my favourite number," he said.

Sydney are in action again on Wednesday when they take on Sydney Tigers in their latest pre-season friendly.