Coach Mark Champion said new and returning basketball players had tested their metal on the court, while coaches evaluated their fitness, attitude and skills. 

"Basically in our trials we do a number of physical and skills based trials such as timing, scoring, how many shots you can make in certain drills, how fast you can run and how fast you can dribble," he said court-side on January 19.

"Lots of three on three scrimmages, or five on five in a competitive environment.

"We're looking for 12 criteria that we look at in all these games, five of those are attitude criteria and seven are skills .

"So its not just about who has the best skills but who is the most competitive, most coach able, commitment and composure."

The Dolphins have until mid-March to prepare for the state league competition, they'll be tipping off in the northern pool alongside Tamworth, Newcastle, two teams from the Central Coast and Sydney.

"There's some new players to the squad, a couple of returning players which didn't play last year which is really positive," he said.

"Its been a bit hot so people have worked hard but other than that we have got a bit of rust to work out after the Christmas break.

"Its been a good change with competitive trials, we are going to have a deep squad."

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