They might have been outmuscled and outgunned by Gunnedah in Saturday's trial at Gunnedah but Tamworth assistant coaches Phil Cook and Ben Coombes thought there were plenty of positives to take away.
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They were on duty with head coach Damian Henry captaining City United in the Tamworth third grade cricket grand final.
"We've got a little bit there left still to work on," Cook said.
"[But] I'm happy with how we trialled."
"The New England comp, I don't think we'll come up against a side as big as what Gunnedah are."
That caused them a few problems.
Due to kick off their New England campaign at home to defending champions St Albert's on April 22, one thing Saturday highlighted is that there is "lots to work on" in the backs.
They were quite disjointed in attack, and also in defence.
They also have "a bit of work to do" around the scrum with the Red Devils putting them under a lot of pressure and really disrupting their ball there.
Cook did though point out that they had a few players playing out of position in the scrum, and a few new players there.
Once they "get that sorted", they should be right, he said.
Generally he thought the forwards did pretty well, the work that they've been doing with them seeming to be paying off.
There were plenty of new faces on show and also a few returning ones with Dougal Eliott back after having a few seasons off.
Cook said the half-back has been a real "godsend" for them.
"His talk is unbelievable," he said.
He was one of their best along with Harry Mills and Sam White.
"Harry Mills had a big game in the heat for us for a big fella, and Sammy White; those blokes were powerhouses up front for us," he said.
They were, he said, probably 70 per cent close to what they believe is their strongest 15 with a few players to come back in that weren't available on Saturday.
As far as the new faces, there's a few that they are excited about.
"We've got a lot of Fijian boys and Samoan boys that can't train because of work but they show up and play and they've got some flair about them so they should be good for us," Cook said.
