Coalfilelds players including Maitland's James Bradley, Matt Soper-Lawler, Jayden Butterfield and James Taylor dominate the Newcastle Rebels team to take on Canberra at the Maitland Sportsground on Saturday.
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Rebels coach Aaron Watts has been forced to make several changes to his squad but is confident he has the right mix to win.
Kurri Kurri's Mitch Cullen will play at five-eighth and captain the team. He will be joined by his Bulldogs teammate Jarred Anderson who will start in the second row.
A six-man Cessnock contingent includes Joe Woodbury, Tyrone Roberts-Davis, AJ Davis, Billy Gilbert, Wyatt Shaw, Connor Kirkwood, and Robert Tuliatu.
Depending on injury the Maitland and Kurri Kurri Rebels contingents will back up for Sunday's Newcastle RL catch up game between the Pickers and Bulldogs at Kurri Kurri Sportsground.
Newcastle opened their 2021 campaign by defeating Illawarra 36-4 in Wollongong last month.
"The rep games don't come around that often," Watts said. "We're at home, there's a couple of debuts and just the camaraderie in the group ... we don't want to waste an opportunity."
Saturday's main game kicks off at 3pm. Earlier, the Rebels and Canberra also do battle in the under 20s age group (1:30pm).
In a huge moment for the next generation of Pickers, Maitland's under-17s will kick off proceeding on the day when they play Lakes United at 11am.
NEWCASTLE: Cameron Anderson, Joe Woodbury, Royce Geoffrey, Tyrone Roberts-Davis, James Bradley, Mitch Cullen (c), AJ Davis, Jayden Butterfield, Billy Gilbert, James Taylor, Wyatt Shaw, Jarred Anderson, Connor Kirkwood, Matt Moon, Joseph Gardiner, Robert Tuliatu, Matt Soper-Lawler.
