Storm coach Craig Bellamy was not concerned by his team's uncharacteristically poor handling in their trial loss to North Queensland, blaming the errors on Mackay's humidity.
Last year's runners-up were well below their best in the 14-6 defeat but Bellamy said the reasoning behind their poor completion rates was the slippery conditions in the tropical humidity.
More of a concern for the dual premiership-winning coach was a suspected torn pectoral suffered by young fullback Scott Drinkwater which will put him out of action for a lengthy period of time to be determined over the next couple of days.
"There was some good parts for us and not so good parts as well so it was a bit of a mixed bag I think and it was obviously quite humid out there and the ball’s pretty hard to hang onto," he said.
"The Cowboys had the same sort of problems as well. We were really struggling in the second half with that. I thought our defence in the first half was really good. The second half wasn't so good so. We got a few things to work on."
When asked for a prognosis on Drinkwater, he replied: "I don't think it's great. It sounds like he might have tore a pec. If that’s the case it’ll be surgery and it could be two or three months at least. That’s the diagnosis without having a scan."
Bellamy said evergreen skipper Cameron Smith shook off some pre-season rust in Mackay and enjoyed a rare extended stint on the bench watching proceedings.
“Tonight he wanted to play 50 minutes so as long as he's happy with his preparation. Just having Cameron’s craft out there made a great difference”
