ACTIVATED by the appointment of a new club president and new men's coach, Old Bar will remove some summer rust from three-rival Mid North Coast clubs' bloodstreams in an afternoon round-robin at their Richard Crook home ground on Saturday March 7.
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The Kempsey Cannonballs and Forster Tuncurry Dolphins have indicated they will take part, but of special interest to the carnival is the third club invited, the Gloucester Cockies.
Gloucester women's team has competed in the last two grand finals of the Lower Mid North Coast premiership, winning in 2018, but their men's playing strength was so depleted last year that they failed to field a team.
The Cockies are attempting to recruit more players and for the sake of a balanced premiership - and so preventing a grossly unsatisfactory five team men's competition - it is to be hoped they achieve their purpose.
Of the Clams, new president, Brian Groughan, said: "We have had an encouraging response at training. We can never get enough new players, but the numbers for both the men and women teams have been pleasing.
"Our new men's coach, Wayne Gahan, played for the Clams and for the Manning River Ratz and has been giving the players demanding workouts. It would be nice to see the club back among the top teams again."
Old Bar will again have the services of former MNC Axemen's representative hooker, Teia Ambrosoli, and their "rock" of the scrum, Brad Lewis, as well as tigerish flanker, Phil Koch.
The trials will be conducted along the lines of 20-minute or half-hourly playing periods with a suggestion that the Cannonballs' game against the Dolphins could be extended to half an hour each way.
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Forster's Dolphins will again be captained by the slick inside back, Mark Hagarty, who has succeeded the now retired outstanding five-eighth, Matt Nuku.
The Dolphins, defending champions of last year's Kennards Hire premiership, appear to be developing an interesting combination of old and new players, recent training sessions enlivened by the arrival of a new personality, a bullocking, 110kg and 30-year-old backrower named Atu Kato.
Apparently a friendship struck up between Katu and the Dolphins' husky Tongan No 8, "Hau" Honema'u, himself a new arrival last year, led to the Fijian starting training with Forster.
Other new Dolphins include the inside back, Joel Wilson, centre Kobi Simon, hooker Kyle Cullen and utility player Tynan Leah.
However, the club's women's team, the Dolphinettes, have sustained some serious setbacks with several of last year's crop of young players lost through employment or illness, one being the outstanding prospect, Christina Davis, who requires major surgery.
