He admitted they didn’t like having a bye when the McDonalds Premier Cricket League returned last weekend. 

“None of us have played for a month and we didn’t finish the year off as strong as wanted to,” he said. 

“We’ve been training as hard as we can over the break. The other teams will have the benefit of a game under their belts.”

Michael Pelley is away, and a few other players are on extended holidays which makes continuity tough for Macquarie.

“We haven’t had much time training as a team, but the blokes who have been training are doing really well,” Hyde said.

“We have a really good culture at our club at the moment, probably the best I’ve seen around our side for the last four or five years. It’s a lot tougher competition this year.

“We’ve shown a lot more character this year than we have in previous years. We’d be disappointed if we did get beat (this weekend), but the fact we have a lack of training and game time could mean a sluggish start, but we’ll try and go in with confidence and get things moving.”

The Port City League Magpies will aim for another win after a belting performance against the Pirate last weekend when they travel to Chatham Park to take on the Rovers.

Wauchope are looking to ease the pain of an abysmal batting performance last weekend.

Wingham travelled up to Wauchope’s Andrews Park with the home team winning the toss and electing to bat.

They managed just 83 in 31 overs, with all of Wingham’s bowlers taking at least two wickets each.

Aaron Hagenbach opened and top scored with 33 for Wauchope, but that was as good as it got.

By the 17th over Wingham passed the Wauchope total. Brock Hynes top scored with 37.

Captain Matt Day didn’t shy away when asked about his team’s performance.

“To be honest we were very ordinary with the bat. It was very disappointing,” he said.

“This week is basically must win for us. There’s plenty of pressure on us but I know we have the side to do it.

“Five of us got ducks, me included, so we couldn’t provide any platform. There’s not much we can do now but move on and get better.”

Move on they will as they travel away to Kempsey this Saturday.

“We’re working hard, doing things right at training but we aren’t bringing that to the game,” Day said.

“This weekend we don’t want to be planning our end of season trip after the game. The ladder is so tightly placed that you can lose one game and go down the bottom.

“A couple of young guys, who are the future of the club, like Corey Holt and Zane Haywood who debuted on the weekend and they’re both going awesome.”