Former Victory number two Seb Mattei switched to Heart in the off-season and will join the red and whites’ NYL squad, with Heart’s number two from last year Peter Zois moving into a keeper-coach  role.

Thomas Dunn from Geelong is also said to be close to signing with Heart as a youth team keeper.

Heart have also been trialing a host of other keepers as they look to build in more back-up to undisputed number one Clint Bolton.

These include Zagreb-born Vedran Janjetovic formerly of  Sydney United, Brisbane Roar and Sydney FC.

Green Gully’s impressive shot-stopper Nicola Roganovic- who is set to play in the VPL grand final against Oakleigh on Saturday – has also trialed.

Former Roar man Griffin McMaster was another thrown in the mix at Heart with trials.

McMaster was awarded the VPL keeper of the year on Monday night for his work with Heidelberg United, though he accepted his award on crutches .

Heart have also been trialing Gosford-born dual Australian and Kiwi nationality keeper Rhyss Keane.

Keane may be familiar to fans of Manly United. The Kiwi youth international trained regularly with respected keeper coach John Crawley at Manly and the Mariners in recent years.

 “He’s getting opportunities with his country and it’s only going to do his confidence good,” Crawley told the Manly Daily in 2009.

The keeper  is currently in the 23-man All-White Olympic training squad based in Taupo under the guidance of former Socceroo coach Raul Blanco.

Keane (pictured training with Zois at Heart) has spent a loan period at Heidelberg as cover for the injured McMaster, which helped United to a finals finish in the VPL, with his performances seeing him approached by a number of top VPL for next season.

au.fourfourtwo.com recently watched the powerfully built glovesman train at Heart and he impressed with his physical presence, agility and strong left foot.

It’s an opinion backed up by Kiwi U/23 keeper coach Clint Gosling who is said to be impressed by the Gosford-born Keane, who recently played in trial matches for Heart against Ballarat Red Devils.

However, Heart’s number one keeper remains Bolton who has spent much of the off-season recovering from surgery.

Meanwhile over at Melbourne Victory the club signed Tando Velaphi but with the retirement of Michael Petkovic they have trialed several state league keepers, including WA’s Frazer Siddall and South Melbourne’s Zain Zanelli.

Victory were set to announce the signing of Dean Bouzanis in July but that transfer – despite it being announced on the player’s twitter feed – fell over at the last minute.

Lawrence Thomas  is the latest name to be thrown into the mix at Victory. The former Young Socceroo keeper and Sheffield United shot-stopper is believed to be recovered from injury that kept him out of the mix for the Colombia U-20 World Cup in July and could be a handy pick-up for Victory.