For Gunnedah, Saturday's trial against Tamworth was as much about blowing out the cobwebs, as the demons from last year's grand final loss.
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The Red Devils first and only hit-out before they face Walcha in Round 1 on April 15, while it was good to get some game minutes into the legs, the important thing from coach Dan Martin's perspective was just "getting the guys back on the park and enjoying football".
"It's been an off season where there's probably been a bit of soul-searching for some of the boys from the last game they played," he said.
The disappointment of being the best team all season but being unable to deliver in the game that mattered the most has, he said, been tough "on a lot of people".
He spoke himself of many times since "looking at the ceiling at night-time" thinking about the game and if he'd done this or that differently would that have changed the result.
He was considering, "happy" with Saturday, although conceded that they are "nowhere near" where they need to be yet.
They were still too good for the Magpies, a dominant scrum and some individual brilliance from James Perrett and Emori Waqavulagi helping them get the upper hand.
It was at times scrappy and errant, but given that they haven't really touched on much attack at training yet, Martin couldn't fault them too much.
"We haven't done any structure whatsoever," he said.
"We've been working on a few defensive sort of issues that I think we needed to plug."
He thought their defence was good on Saturday. They held the Magpies out until late in the game.
They were missing probably a handful of players from their likely first grade side, backs Cameron Mitchell and DJ Morrison among those that didn't play.
But, as Martin said, they know what they've got with them.
He also counted two front rowers, a second rower and a backrower.
They have been fortunate to retain the majority of last year's side but do have a couple of crucial holes to fill.
The most pressing is nine and 10 with half-back Sam Crane going off travelling and five-eighth Marcus Hayne undecided yet whether he will play.
The two positions that really drive their attack, Martin isn't too concerned though. They have options there; it's just about which is best suited to their game.
Matt Roseby is another loss with the second rower, at this stage, content watching from the sidelines.
Second row partner Tim McDermott is though expected to be back at some stage following his horrific ankle injury in the opening minutes of the grand final. When that is will depend on how he progresses in his recovery.
Nick Lyons is also back after playing league with Boggabri last season and will slot into the second row. They've also picked up probably half a dozen new players.
"But how we get it to gel is the mystery," Martin said.
"We're still a mixing pot and we don't know where we're at yet."
They will host the Rams in what he expects to be a tough first-up test.
"Walcha are going to be primed. They've done a tour of New Zealand.... so they're going to be fit and raring to go," he said.
