It's not possible to ease your way into the engine room but the Cowboys won't overwork veteran prop Matt Scott when he makes his return from neck surgery on Saturday.
Assistant coach David Fairleigh doesn't expect Scott to get a substantial amount of game time in the North Queensland's trial against the Titans.
"I think for him it's important that he’ll get some confidence," Fairleigh said.
"His neck's fine, he's been training the last couple of weeks. It's very important to us and we're sure he'll get through it unscathed."
Fairleigh said Scott was mentally and physically in good shape and the former international forward was confident the North Queensland stalwart could return to playing some of his best football.
"I'm very confident," Fairleigh said.
"He's a winner, he wants to achieve. I think all of those things and the type of personality that he is, it’ll make him have a good year.
Fairleigh said trial form would play a big part in the final decision on the pairing of Michael Morgan and Te Maire Martin in the halves.
“Morgo and Te Maire are both international players. If that happened that wouldn’t surprise me,” he said.
Coach Paul Green has not selected new recruit Jordan Kahu with fans having to wait another week before they see the former Bronco in Cowboys colours.
Young gun Carlin Anderson, who has starred with Ipswich and Townsville in the Intrust Super Cup, will get his chance to lay his claim to the No.1 jersey which became vacant when Ben Barba was recently sacked by the club.
"We know what Jordan Kahu can do, he's a quality player," Fairleigh said.
"We're very lucky to get him. The reason he wouldn’t be playing is that we can give some young guys a go.
"[Carlin] is a guy who has had the entire pre-season to train nearly every session."
