So it seemed fitting the Port Macquarie Pirates coach played an integral role in his team's 59-5 hammering of Kempsey on Saturday.

On a day when the club held the Pete Sales memorial day, Pirates were rarely troubled by the Cannonballs although Harding admitted there was still a lot to work on.

"They were minus six players so we don't want to get too far ahead of ourselves," he said.

"We played good in patches and when we did the little things right we looked good so we've just got to get confidence in doing what we want to do.

"We could have put 80 or 90 points on them and we didn't, so that was disappointing because we dropped a lot of first phase ball from getting too excited."

Harding said the challenge for his side was to work on their consistency and patience with the footy.

"We never gave ourselves an opportunity to practice what we've been training because we dropped a lot of first phase ball," he said.

"Instead, we went back to our old ways which is going to happen, but down the track we'll delete the things we're doing wrong and we'll get better."

The Pirates coach said it was an emotional day for all involved with the club and he was "tickled pink" to see the effort from his team.

"I think (Pete) would have been excited to see what we did today, it was pretty good," he said.

"I think we controlled the (emotion of the day) pretty well but it's nice to be able to do what we did and see the family happy.

"They're a very tight family so it's nice to be able to do something that's positive and seeing the kids have a really good time."