A hard-fought victory over the Queanbeyan Whites in Saturday's trial match buoyed the spirits of Goulburn Dirty Reds head coach Ben Pearson, who said the match was "really positive" for his team.
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Played at Poidevin Oval, Goulburn's second trial match got underway with a Whites try early. The home side responded quickly with a try of its own, and held sway on the momentum for most of the game.
In the course of their victory, the Dirty Reds showed improvements in some key areas, which Pearson was very pleased to see.
"We went out, gave ourselves some goals to achieve on Thursday night, and we achieved all of them plus a few more," he said.
"In the previous trial game, we had some terrible possession, we kept losing possession and that was one of the things we went out to fix,
"I thought we did quite well today."
After a comfortable win, Pearson said he was happy with how the team is tracking at this point in the pre-season.
He was, however, concerned that the start date for the season had been pushed back to early May.
Initially, the first round of the First Division First Grade competition was supposed to be played on April 17. However, due to some last-minute changes, the season was delayed in order for the draw to be updated.
So, while Saturday's game was supposed to be the final trial match for the Dirty Reds, Pearson will now take into account the additional two weeks of pre-season they now have to undergo.
"We still don't actually have a draw, but we're hoping it will start on the first of May," he said.
"A little bit of extra time to prepare, it could be a good thing or a bad thing. People hanging around waiting to play and another two weeks of pre-season training on top.
"This trial should have been two weeks out from the start of the competition, now it's four weeks out. That's not ideal."
In an effort to ensure the team stays on track with its preparations, Pearson is now hoping to schedule another trial match on April 17. However, as most teams will have begun their competitions by that point, he knows it will be a long shot.
"Our only option is to trial against clubs that we'll be playing against anyway," Pearson said.
"I'd almost prefer to step up a level and play a standard of team who's a bit better, but I don't know that we're going to get anyone to play against."
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