But you didn’t hear any of the budding Central West colts mention that, not if they want to earn a spot in the baby bulls’ squad to contest the country championships in 2017.

“There was no whinging or sooking about it ... they just got in and did the job, which was good,” colts coach Dean Matthews said at Jubilee Oval on Saturday.

“We’re pretty pleased with how things went. It’s definitely a good base to work with and we’ll go from there.”

The Central West Rugby Union’s under 19s squad took to the heat at Mudgee on Saturday for the first selection trials of the season, with Matthews and his coaching team of Mark Stanford, Rob Bond and Jason Coycle putting the group through a possibles and probables match-up.

All four men will coach Dubbo Roos’ first grade side this season, too, but Matthews’ immediate future looks bright while in charge of the CWRU’s under 19s squad. 

“We’re keen, there’s some great football players here,” Matthew said.

“There was a lot of classy players out there … it was just one of those things, you never know what you’re going to get out of a trial.

“We’ll keep slowly working our way towards the country championships and the trials we’ve got ahead.”

With the scoreline not kept during Saturday’s hit-out, Matthews said attitude more than anything was key in such trying conditions.

The Dubbo-based mentor was particularly pleased with the work of the forwards, with just shy of 30 players making the trip to Mudgee for the trials.

Matthews said Michael Bartimote and Felix Quinn, from Dubbo and Bathurst respectively, impressed with their work during the hit-out.

“We’ve got a good bunch of kids to pick from, which is important,” Matthews added.

“We’ll get together again at Molong on Wednesday for training and keep chipping away.”

The Central West campaign include games against Manly, Central Coast and Sydney Uni before the Country Championships in Port Macquarie in April.