FIRST TRL HITOUT
Valleys face off with new Beenleigh side
RUGBY LEAGUE: The Valleys Roosters were among a number of sides to get their Toowoomba Rugby League Premiership seasons underway with trial fixtures at the weekend.
They welcomed a Beenleigh Pride side to Herb Steinohrt Oval, who had a key motivation in the pre-season.
The Pride are a new club in the highly egarded Brisbane Rugby League competition, serving as an affiliate of Wynnum.
The newly promoted In Safe Hands Cup side proved too strong over the concluding stages at The Chookpen, claiming a 32-18 victory.
Valleys coach Matt Schulze said his side wasn’t phased with the result, instead opting to focus on the positives to come from the outing.
“We’re very happy with how things went,” Schulze said.
“We got what we wanted to get out of the trial.
“Some of our players had to play a lot of minutes which can be testing at this time of year, especially against a tough, physical side.
“The Pride have probably been training pretty steadily since October and the players they brought across both sides were trying to push for selection, and they were quite a sizeable side.”
Schulze said the effort of his side was another pleasing factor, as Valleys led the contest 18-10 before the Pride were able to storm home and take the win.
“What we wanted to see most was the boys competing, as well as to see some of our structures in place,” he said.
“We were a bit short on field sessions in the lead up to the game with the rain, which has been a good thing, but we were a little underdone.
“Mackenzie Reid and Brock Diment played their first seniors game with the club. They’re juniors with us so it was good to have them involved.
“There’ll be a few players vying for a spot in the halves, but Mackenzie will certainly feature prominently as we try and sort it out.”
Valleys are hopeful of securing another trial on Match 7 as a final lead-in to the season proper.
Earlier in the evening, Valleys was able to secure a 32-18 win in the reserve grade fixture over Beenleigh.
In other games, Goondiwindi proved too strong for a visiting Southern Suburbs side at Gilbert Oval.
The Boars took out A-grade honours with a 58-8 victory, backing up from their 52-8 success in reserve grade.
In Ipswich, Highfields showed they are a much better side than last year’s results suggest.
The Eagles took on Brothers in a pair of fixtures, defeating last year’s Ipswich premiers in A-grade 32-16, and edging them out in reserve grade 18-12. The result and recap of the Brothers vs Western Mustangs U20s will appear in tomorrow’s The Chronicle.