Group 4: North Tamworth Bears host Kootingal and Denman for trials

Scorching temperatures prevailed in their first trial, against the Terrigal Sharks, but when the Denman Devils arrived on Saturday, the ground was drenched by steady rain which hung around most of the day.

It forced a change of tactics for the Bears women, who played their first and only trial against the Kootingal Moonbi Roosters women prior to the men's matches.

But they managed to pull out a 16-0 win regardless, which pleased assistant coach Kim Resch to no end.

"It was a good hit-out," Resch said.

"We haven't really done much offensive work at training, so the goal was to focus on [defence], and we kept them to nil."

New recruit Bec Quick "played really well", and was one of Resch's picks for best on ground.

Aly Davis also "played a great game", while Amy Barraclough was "outstanding" with her kicking in the wet weather.

It was an ideal showing for their only warm-up prior to the season, and Resch believes the side is on the right track to "be ready" by round one.

"I think the next couple of weeks, the focus will be on building the team structure ready for that first game and taking a few pointers out of this game," she said.

The women's clash was followed by the Bears men, who took on the Denman Devils in reserve grade and first grade.

The reserve graders won their trial by three tries, while first grade suffered from a lack of numbers against a high-quality visiting side and lost.

But that did not dampen the mood of men's coach, Paul Boyce, who saw plenty of positives from both matches.

"I was pretty happy with their efforts," Boyce said.

"Denman is a strong side, they were last year's grand finalists in Group 21. Defensively we were pretty good, two or three tries we let in from our own errors ... those sorts of things are against the grain.

"But I thought the effort was there."

A number of the reserve grade players stepped up to first grade to fill some gaps, and performed admirably despite playing twice.

Steve Merritt was one such stand-in who impressed Boyce, particularly with his sustained aggression in defence.

The others to draw praise from the coach were Ben Jarvis, Jake Bennett, and Dalton Desmond-Walker, who "set a platform for us".

"We learned a lot from today's game, and we'll be prepared for round one," Boyce said.

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