The Sharks will tackle a strong Maitland team that features a former NRL star in Dane Tilse.

The match kicks off at 4pm at the regional stadium tomorrow (February 25) and will showcase a lot of Sharks reserve grade and under 18s players.

“Most of the guys will get a run, those that are available anyway,” Grant said.

“Round one is too far away to know what a team will be. But this trial will help to gauge that.”

The Sharks have not made any significant signings for the new season, choosing to focus on players already at the club.

“It’s more the players we have lost as opposed to who we have gained,” Grant said.

“We have lost six dominant and key players that have left or have retired, so we are relying on reserve graders and under 18s to fill those gaps for the season proper.”

Maitland are bringing a strong team, which includes Tilse, who played in the English Super League for the Hull Kingston Rovers.

Grant will not be too worried about the result, but more so seeing a cohesive effort from a squad who has trained well over the summer.

“Everyone has put in a good effort at training. It’s been a bit disruptive over summer with other sports like oz tag,” Grant said.

“But once we can fully focus on the season as we move closer to round one I think we will be right.

“The pre-season will be a bit of a test for myself personally, but I think we have done a similar pre-season to what the club has done in the past.

“I’m really excited to move up, it was always a goal to run the first grade side and to see how the team goes.”

Round one kicks off at the end of April. The annual pre-season competition that is played between northern and southern division teams over a couple of weekends will take place in March.