Pirates are looking at playing a bit of 7s to quench their footy thirst following the abandonment of the Central North season.
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As the dust settles on the disappointment of not having the chance to add to their treasure chest in 2020, co-coach Mick Squires said they haven't really mapped out anything yet but indicated they won't be involved in any gala days or other games.
In the wake of the season being cancelled there was some talk about running gala days or staging derby games, but in consultation with the senior playing group, he said, they have "decided to give that avenue a miss".
The idea of joining the New England competition as their grand final combatants last year, Walcha, have done, was also floated but that "wasn't something that interested us".
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Depending on how things progress, instead they are looking to play a bit of 7s.
"There's a couple of good 7s tournaments at the end of the year," Squires said.
"Byron Bay have a big one in October."
Something they were "probably going to look at anyway", he believes it is their best option.
They might even be able to host their own.
Squires acknowledges that it won't appeal to everyone, some of the players have other commitments over the summer, but it will give them a bit of footy and being only a weekend, it's not a major commitment.
It won't hurt them either. If they have had one weakness in recent seasons, he said, it's been their ability to handle the fast backs of the likes of Walcha and Moree.
Sevens will be good for improving that.
He said while there was understandably a lot of disappointment about the season not going ahead, especially given what they were chasing (they were going for an historic fifth straight premiership), the players had pretty much accepted that there wasn't going to be a season.
He believes it was the "right decision", even if it certainly wasn't how he and co-coach Todd Pascoe wanted their first year to go after taking over from Mat Kelly.
Now as they start to turn their attention to next season he said the year off might not necessarily be a bad thing.
"I think if anything with a lot of our senior players this has probably stoked the fire a bit more," Squires said.
The senior grades got back into training on Tuesday night after the juniors resumed last week.
For now all they can really do is just have a run around, but down the track he said they might look to play some social touch games or something.
"We'll get back to training because we think it will be a good way to keep people fit and get everyone back together again," he said.
