LIKE all teams who have chopped and changed over the off-season, the Bathurst Panthers are keen to see how their new side is going to perform but they might have to wait a bit longer, according to player-coach Todd Barrow.
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Barrow will sit out this weekend’s Bathurst Rugby League Knockout, in which his side have a bye before facing the winner of Cowra and Orange Hawks.
Panthers will also be without star signing Jeremy Gordon and prop Osea Sadrau, who is yet to return from Fiji, though the situation does give Barrow the chance to have another look at some of his promising squad members.
“You want to win every game you play, but we’re treating this as another trial more than anything. We’ve still got guys missing and unavailable so there’s no point treating it as a win-at-all-costs sort of thing,” the coach said.
“We’re trialling Matt Woolmington and Joey Bugg together in the halves. They haven’t really played together before in first grade so it is mainly about trying some combinations.
“We would like to win, all the teams would say the same thing, but if we can get some more matches under the belt that’s the most important thing.”
Barrow’s counterpart at St Pat’s, Kurt Hancock, said he was particularly interested in seeing how their first opponents Blayney will perform with some new faces.
But the Panthers mentor is reluctant to look too far into what happens tonight and tomorrow.
“At this time of the year you can’t take too much from it. A lot of the sides I think will look very different come round one of the Group 10 competition,” he said.
“It will still be interesting to have a look at a couple of the teams and who they’ve picked up but like us, most of them will be missing players.”
Tonight’s match will provide the first chance for former team-mates Brent Seager and Greg Behan to reunite in the front-row alongside hooker Luke Carpenter.
With their back-row of Jed Betts, Max Wolfson and Jake Betts, the forward pack looks to be a major strength.
Barrow says there will be no specific quality across all nine participating teams that is going to earn the overall win, aside from the most simple quality of them all.
“Usually this early in the season, the team that holds the ball best will be the most successful,” he said.
“Being a shorter format, teams will try and throw it around a fair bit, but what I’ll be drilling into my players is simply holding onto the thing.”
Panthers play either Hawks or Cowra at 9.40pm at Carrington Park.
BATHURST PANTHERS: 1 Sandon Gibbs-O’Neill, 2 Chris Shepherd, 3 Bradyn Cassidy, 4 Blake Lawson, 5 TBA, 6 Matt Woolmington, 7 Joey Bugg, 8 Brent Seager, 9 Luke Carpenter, 10 Greg Behan, 11 Jed Betts, 12 Max Wolfson, 13 Jake Betts, 14 Katon Crawford, 15 Stan Latu, 16 Caleb Sharwood, 17 Koen Willis