Double blow for Tumut on eve of starting title defence

After training with the club on Tuesday, new English recruit Toby Mallinson has left the Blues.

After only arriving in Australia in March to help counteract a large player drain at the Group Nine premiers, Mallinson had been struggling to find suitable employment around Tumut.

Mallinson was set to line up in the halves to take on Kangaroos in the grand final rematch at Equex Centre on Saturday.

Instead he's packed his bags and headed to Newcastle.

Tumut coach Zac Masters admitted it's another blow for the club to deal with.

"He was our half so it's been a nightmare and we've lost Michael Clarke as well, one of the centres," Masters said.

"It was the same as last year (for Clarke) and he's not confident in his body.

"It got to round one and in his head he felt he was going to get injured again, can't afford to with work so has decided not to.

"I tried to talk him around but if your heads not in it, it is what is it."

Tumut have lost nine starters from last year's grand final winning side including Weissel Medal winner Lachlan Bristow, who was named best in the grand final, last year's best and fairest winner Jacob Sturt as well as other representative players in Michael Fenn, Adam Pearce, Mitch Ivill and Brayden Draber.

Masters hoped Mallinson and Lochlan McGill's arrival from England would help stem the bleeding.

Instead he's now expecting an even bigger test to start the season.

"It's been a tough pre-season in terms of luck but we've still got a squad I'm confident that can compete," Masters said.

"It will be a pretty tough test first up but as long as the boys rip in and just keep improving week-by-week.

"I certainly don't expect to hit the ground running by round one but if we can improve, fingers crossed we don't get too many injuries, and we will still be on the hunt to try to find a new players.

Tumut will also go into the second without Lewis Aragon, who isn't expected from a knee injury until round three.

As such it's put more pressure on their reserve grade side and had to forfeit due to a lack of numbers.

"There's probably a handful of reserve grade players who aren't available this week, and that could be a week-to-week thing," Masters said.

"They would have been right but then we had to call two or three up and they were down to 12 or 13, with playing three of our guys off the bench fresh.

"We didn't think we could do that so we'll have to round up some numbers."