Kootingal-Moonbi Roosters continued their preparations for the 2021 Group 4 season with another win on the weekend.
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The Roosters beat Singleton 42-10 in a first grade trial at Kootingal Oval on Saturday after beating Gulgong the previous week.
"We had a good win," coach Geoff Sharpe said after Saturday's trial win which also served as a birthday present for the 53-year-old.
"A bit of an arm wrestle for 60 minutes but we ran down hill in the second half. I was really pleased with it, very happy with all of them. We played strong for the first 40 or 50."
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There was good performances across the park, Sharpe said.
Logan Howard and Josh Kevill were two of Kooty's best with strong games in the back row while Sharpe made mention of a couple other players.
"Ben Williams was amazing. Got through a lot of work. Had one of his best games for us," Sharpe said.
"Liam Hatch went well at right centre, too.
"The best thing was we were able to run a lot of the young blokes off the bench. A lot of the them will play in our reserve grade side but it was good to give them good minutes in first grade.
"Young Riley Reid played well in juniors and then had good minutes in first grade. It gives them a taste of the first grade standard. So it was a good team effort and good for the trial up at Guyra."
Singleton captain-coach Sharpe, Jake Hawkins, was also happy with his side's trial.
"We went all right," the suspended Greater Northern Tiger hooker said.
Hawkins received a two-game suspension from NSWRL after being reported and sin-binned in the Country Championship win over Newcastle Maitland Region in Cessnock two Saturdays back.
It meant he wasn't allowed to play in the Tigers loss to Western at Farrer on Saturday nor the trial at Kootingal.
He was still upbeat about his side's effort at Kooty.
"We held them to 12-10 at three quarter time and played quite good until we had a few injuries and they (Kooty) ran away with it," he said.
"It was our first trial."
He though Cody O'Hara, Jake Smith, Fijian flyer Apu and Cory Manicaros all excelled.
In the under 18s match, Kootingal won 12-10 while the senior side will play another trial this weekend.
The Roosters continue a busy trial period with a visit to the Guyra Super Spuds this Saturday as well.
That will be essentially a reserve grade trial, Sharpe said, owing to the lack of numbers and quality the Spuds will be able to field.
