TAREE City has to get over what coach Gary Bridge described as a 'northern hoodoo' if they are going to make an impression in this season's Group Three Rugby League competition.

Bridge pointed out that since the club's last premiership win in 2007 victories against the Hastings clubs and Macleay Valley have been few and far. The last time the Bulls won against a northern combination was the second round in 2014 when they were successful against Port City.

Taree gets a chance to improve on that record tomorrow against unpredictable Macleay Valley at Kempsey.

Hastings clubs have dominated Group Three in recent years. However, Bridge said Wingham has shown the way this season with two wins over Wauchope at Wauchope, including last week's 40-12 hammering, one of the club's biggest scorelines there.

"We have to start beating these northern clubs,'' Bridge said.

"Maybe it's a mental thing. But we have to get over it.''

"We've got three important games coming up - against Macleay, Old Bar and Wauchope.

"We'll know then if we're a chance of playing for the top three or trying to make fifth after we've played them.''

The Bulls have a few injury problems, particularly in the backs, for tomorrow's game. A hamstring strain continues to worry group representative Aden Avery while promising centre Shannon Mullay has been ruled out with the same problem.

Bridge is considering switching Matt Everitt from lock to his representative spot at five-eighth and moving Nathan Maher from pivot to the centres.

The Bulls have been on the road for the last two matches against Wingham and Port Macquaire and will bring up the trifecta tomorrow.

However, Bridge doesn't think that's a bad thing.

"We're getting these games out of the way so we'll have matches at home coming into the back-end of the season,'' he said.

OLD Bar will welcome a host of players back for Sunday's Group Three Rugby League clash against Forster-Tuncurry at Old Bar.

This includes Rumone Jackson, Jadin Morcombe, Josh Starr and Tom Alchin.

"We'll still have Jadin Lewis out while Brendan Shovell has work commitments, but we'll be closer to full strength this week,'' coach Col Lucas said.

The Pirates are still looking for their first win of the season. However, Lucas couldn't have been happier with the effort his short staffed side put in against Macleay Valley at Kempsey last weekend.

"We had 10 players out,'' Lucas said.

"Jadin Morcombe pulled out on Saturday because he was crook, so I actually went up there with 12 first graders and had to get a player out of reserves. We had no fresh reserves for first grade and only 14 players for reggies (reserves).''

The Pirates looked set to claim a win before Macleay scored two late tries.

Old Bar were well down into the second half, however, veteran Sean Carr, who had earlier played a full game in reserves, came on as a replacement and sparked a revival.

"Sean's a good player but he's happy playing reserve grade - he's not a young bloke anymore,'' Lucas said.

"I'm happy to use him in first grade off the bench whenever he wants to play.''

Despite their lean and somewhat unlucky run, Lucas assures the mood within the club is upbeat.

"Everyone is positive. They're all turning up to training. I can't fault them,'' Lucas said.

The clubs met in the opening round of the season when Forster scored a 20-10 win.

"I think we're a fair chance this weekend,'' Lucas said.

"We're not being cocky - we haven't won a game, so we can't be cocky, but I think we'l go okay.''

Last round losers Port City and Wauchope will meet tomorrow at the Regional Stadium at Port Macquarie.

The Breakers went down to Forster-Tuncurry last weekend while Wauchope lost heavily to Wingham.