After a pretty dismal showing in front of their home crowd at Maitland a week earlier, the Pickers bounced back strong with a tough 18-10 win at Macquarie Field.

After conceding an early try - slow starts continue to be a headache for the Pickers - his team nonetheless settled and took a stranglehold on the game.

The Pickers ran out to lead 16-10 before Andrew Sumner crossed for the Scorpions to close the gap to 16-10 - on the evidence of this season that would be nail-biting stuff for Maitland.

But this time there was nothing to worry about with winger Jye Bieman-King landing a late penalty goal to seal the win.

From Maitland's point of view, the most pleasing aspect of the win would have to be the defence.

It was a real problem area against Souths, but they looked stronger right across the park on Saturday and maintained their intensity along the way.

Coach Dorn had challenged them to respond in the lead up to the match.

"As a group there has to be pride all the way through the team," he said. " The players have to take responsibility for that."

They did that - and the result was their third win from six matches. Considering they brought in a lot of new faces and are still settling on combinations, it's a decent start.

In a good weekend for the Coalfields, the Kurri Bulldogs also grabbed the points, holding on to edge Central 12-6 at a rain-soaked St John Oval on Saturday.

It is the fourth game Kurri have been involved in this season that has been decided by less than six points.

They have won two and lost two.

"Last year we were good at really grinding things out and we are starting to get back that to mindset," Griffiths said.

"We do a lot of work on closing games out and on how to be effective at the end of our sets.

"You have to do it week in, week out in this comp. It is so tight. We are working at it and improving."

With rain falling both teams were forced to play conservative football - and in that regard Kurri did it better for longer.