St Pat’s won 20-18 after being forced to defend on their own line for lengthy periods in the last quarter of the game, but did enough to come away with the victory.

Forbes captain-coach Zac Merritt, one of several Magpies who has also played with St Pat’s, said it was close throughout against his former club.

“It was tight the whole way. We didn’t kick any goals either, so if we had have done that we might have won the game. So that was something we need to work on, but it was more of a day for ‘Brendo’, just to have a bit of fun for him and reminiscing with [St Pat’s],” Merritt said.

Merritt, who was a Group 10 and NSW Country representative while at St Pat’s, said the two groups generally play different styles of footy, but Forbes were able to be competitive.

He was also pleased with the opportunity to try players in new positions or to make their senior debut.

On Saturday, Forbes backs Pat Murphy and Jarrod Masonwells were given time in first grade, while new recruit Joel Davie was rested, in readiness for the start of the season.

“We’ll take a lot out of it… we debuted a few young fellas, just to give them a taste of first grade and what it’s all about.  We had a couple of players unavailabe with other commitments and I just wanted to have a look at some other blokes in different spots,” he said.

“That’s a good thing about trials - you get to play a couple of other fellas who haven’t had senior experience or in different positions.” 

Forbes will kick off the Group 11 season after Easter against Dubbo Westside at Spooner Oval.

Merritt said after losing to the Rabbitohs this time last year, the Magpies are keen to make a better start.

“They knocked us off here last year in round one, so we’ll be out to really prove a point.”

St Pat’s centre Mick Armstrong said the Magpies challenged his team.

“We had to work pretty hard, it was a tight match the whole way through and Forbes had a lot of ball towards the end of the match. We made a lot of mistakes and handed them some good opportunities,” he said.