Josh Dugan is out.

"We've got a few injuries this week, Josh is out for the next few weeks after he broke his thumb in the 10s tournament," Kelly said.

It's a devastating blow for United in their Woodbridge Cup debut but there's still plenty of positivity with the captain-coach himself returning to the fold.

"It's my first week back from a broken wrist, we'll have a fairly decent lineup with a very young squad this weekend - the boys have been training well," he said.

Their opponents, Peak Hill, will come into the fixture confident after knocking off United 42-6 in a trial, however the losing side weren't at full strength.

"We were very short on numbers, we went over with 15 but this week should have a good 18 or 19. Peak Hill had a tough squad over there with plenty of numbers," Kelly said.

Peak Hill captain-coach Blaize Fuller said his side will come into the game off the back of strong pre-season form.

"We're looking pretty good, we beat United in the trial but they had a couple out and weren't full strength but it's still good to win like that," he said.

"In the 10s tournament we lost two and won two, we only had 11 players over there so it was pretty good to actually win a couple of games with no bench."

Fuller added there's been some handy additions to his side, littered with Group 11 experience.

"We've had Kiyan Shaw, Cameron Nolan, Peter Miller and Nathan Ryan come over. Cameron is looking really good and Chad Hartin always looks strong in pre-season," he said.

For Kelly, 2022 marks his first year as captain-coach of United and he couldn't be more keen for the season to start.

"Absolutely, we're itching to get out there, especially me to taking over coaching role. It's exciting, the vibe is good at training and numbers are strong," he said.

"I'm looking forward to see Kane Smith and Tevita Lucas play - our middles are going to be where we win the game, we'll need to match their forwards."

Kick off for Saturday's fixture at Wade Park is 3pm with league tag at 1:40.