But after just one competitive match, it's not hard to see why new coach Matt Lantry was so keen to bring him to Maitland, alongside his more highly credentialled big brother, representative hooker and new team captain Alex.

Versatility.

While he has played most of his career in the halves, Langbridge's nuggety frame meant he could also slip into the forwards and cover a back row position. The sort of thing a coach loves.

But when the pencilled in fullback options for 2020 - Greg Morris and the silky skilled Kurri recruit Jarom Haines - both decided not to play in this highly disrupted season, suddenly fullback became a question mark.

But after just 80 minutes it would seem that's no longer the case.

With the exception of one glaring error - a fumble from a line drop-out when the Pickers were applying sustained pressure - he was outstanding in the opening match against Wentworthville.

"I couldn't have been more pleased," coach Lantry said.

"He's a smart footballer. When we recruited him I told him I wasn't getting him up to Maitland to play at 1.30, I wanted him playing at 3 o'clock.

"So I was confident he would handle fullback, but it was a new position and I thought overall he was outstanding. He pulled off one terrific try-saving tackle in the corner."

The preparation wasn't totally smooth with representative second rower Pat Mata'utia rolling his ankle through the week.

"We thought he'd be okay, but in the end it was worse than we thought," Lantry said.

"So we pulled him out and he's probably only a 50-50 chance for this week. With a shortened season the last thing we want to do is rush a player back and do further damage. We'll wait and see."

The good point about it is that the team was still able to record an away win without one the their prize off-season acquisitions against what is considered one of the heavyweight teams of the competition.

"We're really trying to build depth, and it meant we could bring Cal Burgess in and he did a great job for us."

Any other positives?

Lantry was happy with the way dummy half Alex Langbridge and halfback Brock Lamb combined, but wants to see better execution of their fifth tackle options. And finally he gave a big thumbs up to all his front rowers, Sam Anderson, Jayden Butterfield, James Taylor and Faitotoa Faitotoa.

Next up, the green and white of Dubbbo CYMS on Saturday.