Workington Town start their pre-season programme at Widnes Vikings on Sunday – and coach Anthony Murray has most of his players available.
Only Kian McPherson (ankle) and Ellis Archer (knee), along with Malik Steele who is unavailable, will be absentees.
Murray has said that he is going to give as much game time as he can to all the other members of his squad as he has one eye on the big game with Whitehaven a fortnight later.
“It will mean a fair bit of chopping and changing with rotations but I want to be fair and give them all a chance to show what they can do.
“They have trained hard in pre-season and I know what it’s like, they just want to play games now. Whitehaven, in the Ike Southward Memorial Trophy game is big for both clubs and I know all the lads want to play in it,” said the Town coach ahead of his second season in charge.
His predecessor Chris Thorman will be back in League One after the Newcastle Thunder club was revived and readmitted to the competition.
That’s gone down well with the other competing clubs who feared a watered down League One with fewer home games adding to the problems.
A change of ownership, and a restructuring has been the key to Thunder being given another chance. The fact they can continue to play at Kingston Park has also helped as it boosts their IMG grading score.
The Rugby League has confirmed that they are happy with the key budget, playing and operational details.
