It wasn't the team performance he was hoping for but hooker Jayden Brailey still found some positives in the Knights' trip to Albury for the Storm trial.
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Handed the honour of captaining the side and leading the team out against Melbourne, Brailey got through 40 minutes of work out of dummy half and in defence without a hitch, ridding himself of any potential lingering mental scarring following the knee reconstruction that restricted him to just two games in 2020.
"I was a little bit nervous, but I came through all sweet," he said after the game. "I wasn't worried by it at all." As for the captaincy, Brailey said: "Considering it was my first game back from injury, for me to do that today was really special.
"It was good it was a trial. I think we took a lot of lessons out of it, some good things, definitely some things to work on.
"There was just too many errors - that was the biggest thing and the main talking point. We're not going to beat any side, whether it be the Storm or anyone. They're the reigning champions and you can't cough up that much footy to anyone in the NRL."
Brailey said new recruit Tyson Frizell showed what an asset he will be to the club this season in the backrow after a strong performance and he was also impressed with some of the younger players who did well in the second half when the majority of the main squad was replaced by coach Adam O'Brien.
"Friz brings a lot to the left edge, he's a big body, he runs bloody hard and he's really reliable in defence - he's a really good strike weapon,' Brailey said.
"Of the young blokes, Simi Sasagi, he was good and I thought young Dom Young, he was good when he came on. He was good last week and came out again and backed it up."
The Knights set the tone for a bumbling opening 40 minutes with three errors in the opening eight minutes when both sides had their strongest outfits on the field.
The Storm had all the running as a result and scored three tries to lead 18-0 at the break.
While O'Brien swung the changes for the second half, the Storm's stars were all given around 60 minutes.
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