COWRA Magpies league tag side will attempt to put a disrupted pre-season behind them when they compete in the fourth Western Region League Tag Challenge in Canowindra on Saturday.
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With players committed to summer sports, coach Anthony Sutherland concedes the preparation has been far from ideal and has yet to see a full squad at training.
"We'll try and have a full run towards the end of the week, but I'm not realistically expecting everyone here until next week," he said.
"Many of the summer sports are starting to wind up and so hopefully next week we'll get some normality."
Making things more difficult is the changes to the squad from last year.
Gone is some experience and speed and the obvious combinations that were formed last season.
"We have about six gone with university and retirements," Sutherland said.
"But we have some good young players that have come into the side that should be very handy.
"I'm looking forward to the day and giving the new players a taste of it."
Rather than head to the carnival with high expectations of hoisting the trophy, Sutherland will approach the day as purely trial games.
"We'll just go across and see how they go - they've got to get some football," he said.
"We'll keep it really simple, very basic and just get back into that feeling of tagging and try and control the ball."
Sutherland is also open to using the day as a fact finding mission to assess how others are playing the game.
"I have an idea of how I want the game to be played but you are learning all the time," he said.
"Every game last year that I watched, I was able to pick up little things that you feel could help your game. So, it's a matter of seeing how they go initially and building on their strengths and weaknesses through the season.
"I knew it would take a while last year, but I'm hoping things will click a bit earlier this season."
The Challenge will see a change of format this year from round-robin pools to a knockout.
Losers from the first round will continue in a Plate competition, while winners progress in the main draw.
Cowra play Canowindra, last season's Woodbridge Cup grand finalists, in the opening match starting at 9.45am at Tom Clyburn Oval.
