WITH a new coach and a host of new players the mood around the Dubbo Macquarie camp was a positive one heading into the 2016 season.
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But now, just weeks out from the competition proper kicking off, the Raiders find themselves dealing with a minor crisis.
While three players may be gone for a long period of time, potentially the season, there was some good news for the raiders with Josh Merritt's contract saga finally sorted and the five-eighth has officially linked up with Macquarie after being released by Westside.
But in the trials it has been the injuries which have been the talking point when it comes to the Raiders.
In the first round of trials two weeks ago the men in sky blue lost hard-working and reliable lock Perry Meredith to a serious ankle injury while on Sunday against Parkes Dylan Hill had to be stretched from the field following a knee injury while Mason Williams severely rolled his ankle.
The injuries have taken some of the gloss of the performances in pre-season, with Sunday's match ending in victory for the Dubbo side.
The Raiders were up 38-12 with 15 minutes to go and while Parkes ran in some late tries, McLellan said that was largely due to his side's attitude following the two injuries.
"There were some pretty serious injuries and the boys lost interest a bit then," he said.
"Dylan looks like he has done his ACL and Mason tore bits off bone off his ankle, that's how badly he rolled it.
"It's a horror start for us but at least we've got the depth that I've mentioned before to cover it."
Hill and Williams will both undergo scans early this week to discover the severity of their injuries while Meredith has another date with the fracture clinic for the same reason.
"We'll remain positive and wish them a speedy recovery and see if we can get them back before the end of the season," McLellan said.
In terms of Sunday's win, Merritt shone in his return to the club while Damien Wells also showed promise on debut.
The return of Merritt is the icing on top of the recruitment cake for the Raiders
"At the end of the day Westside have been compensated and they're happy and we're happy and most importantly Josh is playing football," he said.
"But we do need to thank Westside president Max Hill for his cooperation in getting it all sorted."
McLellan added very little has changed in terms of his pre-season plans following the changes to the Group 11 draw which pushed round one back to April 24.
The Raiders meet local rivals CYMS on that date.
