Time will tell for Group Two hopefuls

DALLAS Waters is not singing the praises of the new-look South Grafton Rebels despite a 38-16 trial win over Lower Clarence Magpies.

TACKLE TIME: South Grafton Rebels defenders converge on Lower Clarence’s Travis Gibson during their trial match at Maclean Showground on Saturday. Photo: Debrah Novak

DALLAS Waters is not singing the praises of the new-look South Grafton Rebels despite a 38-16 trial win over Lower Clarence Magpies.

For the first time as Rebels mentor, on Saturday Waters faced off against the club he led as a player to the 2010 NRRRL title but the opposition was far from the force it once was at Maclean Showground.

South Grafton led throughout as Mike and Dan Randall caused damage through the middle, Aaron Martin impressed at five-eighth and Anthony Skinner took advantage of some leaky defence.

But Walters was quick to point out there was a lot of improvement needed ahead of the season opener in three weeks if they are to be a threat in Group Two.

"To be honest, from that performance we're not ready to start the season proper," he said.

"The effort was there, no doubt in that, but the execution wasn't.

"It's going to take time to gel. We've got a new one, a new three, new lock, so it's going to take time for us to understand each other's game.

"I've got no doubt we've got the talent to go well. There's a good culture there, good environment, boys are willing but that was pretty sloppy."

The Rebels continue their preparation with another trial at Bellingen this weekend.

Meanwhile for the Magpies it was an improved performance after crashing to a 56-6 loss in the trial against Casino the previous week.

The Magpies have a three-man leadership group rotating captaincy duties this season. Hooker Dan Nikas led the troops on Saturday and was pleased with the effort.

"The main thing was we were competitive for this match," Nikas said.

"We scored a few points and are growing in confidence which is something we haven't had a lot of in the last few years.

"We're not too worried about the scoreboard, just as long as we're improving each week, which we're doing.

"We carried a few injuries into this week that we didn't want to risk so we had a lot of reserve graders backing up and we just faded away towards the end."

Originally published as Time will tell for Group Two hopefuls