Tamworth Kangaroos president Brett Douglas concedes he was pleasantly surprised by how sharp the players have returned from the COVID-enforced break as they prepare for next month's season kick-off.
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The club resumed training last week and, in an what was an encouraging sign Douglas said the skills were "fairly sharp". They were certainly up on where he thought they would be having pretty well not touched a Sherrin for over three months.
Most of the players had also kept a fair level of fitness.
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Douglas said the numbers for the women were a bit down, although they knew that was probably going to be the case with other commitments, but the men's were up with a couple of new faces and he is confident they will have the numbers to field teams in both competitions.
"The fellas that are there are very keen and itching to play," he said.
The biggest issue will be players only being available every second weekend with work commitments, so they might have to "call on a few fellas to come out of hiding".
With no designated coach yet, Douglas will help out with the men's side as well as again coach the women's with Daniel Johnson.
The men's side will likely be a "very young side" but Douglas is looking forward to seeing how they step up. They might be too a bit green with players from the local league and union sides showing some interest in playing with the Roos this season after their competitions were abandoned.
Luke McDonald (league) and Pirates winger Sam Bowden were among the new faces at training on Thursday. Douglas is hoping they can coax a few more Pirates across too.
Training continues on Tuesday night. They are rotating with the Swans and will train at No.1 Oval on Tuesday's and Riverside 5 on Thursday's.
