With Paul McGregor in New Zealand for the Auckland Nines, Young took charge of the Dragons' 22-man squad that edged out the Mackay Cutters 14-12 in Mackay. A late try by NYC star Junior Vai Vai got them over the line.

New recruit Dane Nielsen, a Mackay product, celebrated his homecoming with a try minutes into the second quarter when former Storm teammate Gareth Widdop put him away with a deft cut-out ball. Damon Koostra and Jordan Pereira both notched tries for the hosts before four-pointers to Jake Marketo and Vai Vai and a late conversion from Drew Hutchison sealed the victory.

New recruits George Rose and Rory O'Brien stood out in the physical exchanges, while skipper Widdop provided some class touches in his 40 minutes on the paddock. Young was satisfied with the performance heading into the Charity Shield.

"It served it's purpose, we got plenty of minutes into all the players and we know where we're at heading into the Charity Shield," Young said.

"It was really important, I thought and the other coaches thought, that we needed a good hitout before playing the premiers. They're going to be hard to handle and we didn't want to go into that game without playing a game."

Conditions were testing as the mercury rose to above 30 degrees and Young felt his side will see the benefits over the coming weeks.

"It was pretty hot today, so all our big boys got plenty of conditioning out of it. They're probably a bit more used to it but our big boys got to sweat it out a bit and dropped a bit of weight, which probably won't hurt them," he said.

"We've trained really hard this pre-season, done a lot of contact in that training but nothing's like playing a game. We made plenty of mistakes, there's no doubt about that, and our execution was a bit off but it's our first trial and I knew it wasn't going to be perfect. It's going to take time."

Both sides wore black arm bands after the Cutters were rocked by the death of former Melbourne junior Hayden Butler.