Maitland Pickers coach Noel Dent will be hoping his young side heal quickly ahead of their opening round Real NRL encounter next week.
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At Maitland Sportsground on Saturday the Pickers played their final pre-season trial against Lakes United, going down 24-12.
It was a tough day for the squad, with promising performances from first grade debutants overshadowed by concerning injuries in the second half.
“First half we had a combination on, in the second half we made a lot of changes, which disrupted us,” Dent said.
“Our ball work didn’t seem brilliant, but we had a lot of changes.
“The only concerning thing is that we got a few injuries out of it unfortunately.
“That was our last trial.
“Overall, I was pretty satisfied.”
With a number of senior players unavailable for the trial, Dent took the opportunity to blood some of his promising youngsters.
“We played a lot of young blokes yesterday, we’re going to be a young side anyway,” the coach said.
“And we had a few of the older blokes out, so a few blokes that had never played first grade played yesterday.
“I thought our young winger, Josh Morrison was good yesterday.
“And young Tyler Le Prince, he’s only an 18-year-old, particularly in the first half, I thought he was pretty good.”
While medical results were pending, Dent confirmed a number players were injured.
“We had a back-rower break his ribs,” he said.
“One of our centres did his knee. I don’t know how bad, I think it’s just a medial strain.
“Another front-rower had very bad bruising of the shin, at one stage we thought he’d broken his leg, but they [doctors] told us this morning that it wasn’t.
“So the second half was pretty hectic.”
The Maitland Pickers will play Central Newcastle in round one of the 2015 Real NRL draw, which was revised following the withdrawal of the Port Stephens Sharks.
“It’s going to be tough to play Central down there on a Sunday,” Dent said.
“They were semi-finalists last year and they’ve improved even further.”
“I’ll come up with a side, we’ll just see from the injuries who’s available and who’s not.
“We’ve got Easter coming up, so we’ll [train] pretty light this week and then regroup the following week.”
The Maitland Pickers play Central Newcastle on Sunday, April 12.
On Saturday the Kurri Kurri Bulldogs travelled to Dubbo for their last trial match, beating the home side 36-20.
The Bulldogs jumped out of the gates to lead 18-nil but allowed Dubbo CYMS back into the Country Rugby League inter-comp encounter, going into the break up 18-14.
The Bulldogs reserve grade side led Dubbo 20-0 at halftime and went on to win their high-scoring affair 42-14.
The Kurri Kurri Bulldogs play their opening match against South Newcastle at Townson Oval on April 11.
Cessnock Goannas will host Western Suburbs on April 11.