Young hammers home club Albury Thunder by 44 points in first game

The much-hyped Young lived up to its billing as one of the favourites, smashing the home team 54-10.

"There were some effort areas that let us down, like kick chase, where one side of the field's chasing and the other's not pushing up," coach Adrian Puretll said.

"Dropped balls you can handle a little bit, but the effort was probably the most disappointing (aspect of the game)."

Young won the 1991 competition with a trio of former NRL players, including former league best and fairest Mal Cochrane, and the Cherrypickers have again a couple of former top-liners who will have a massive say in whether they can break the premiership drought.

Former Canberra and Roosters half-back Mitch Cornish scored two second half tries, while younger sibling Tyler also scored a runaway try.

Tyler Cornish played a game with the Gold Coast.

The visitors blew the home team away in the opening stanza, scoring a point a minute in racing to a 26-0 half-time lead.

But the Thunder struck back in the early minutes of the second half, with Purtell picking up a loose ball and delivering a clever over-head pass to Curtly Jenkinson, who had a narrow corridor to scoot down the wing.

However, the mistakes which had cruelled the club's chances early quickly returned with a second tackle error after the try allowing Jake Walker to barge across.

The Cherrypickers scored another soft try shortly after before recruit Harry Reicher produced a strong tackle on Walker, which forced him from the field.

The Thunder needed more of that energy, but a neat pass in traffic handed former rep player Ben McAlpine the chance to break away, sending Tyler Cornish on a 45m run to the line.

And the Cherrypickers scored another long range try when a kick was knocked down and as the defence converged, a kick infield was perfect for Mitch Cornish, who strolled away.

It looked being a 50-point loss until Jon Huggett barged across from dummy-half in the final minutes.

"You've got to try and find some positives moving into next week, towards the back end we started to move the ball around a little better, including our short passing game," Purtell offered.

"We started to go through them a little better, but we probably didn't roll our sleeves up enough in that first half, playing some smart, grinding footy."

Lock Joe Lumb tried his best throughout, while former Welsh international James Olds will certainly add some punch to the backline with his pace.

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The Thunder isn't home now until early May.

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