A new look and relatively young Kings outfit are preparing for a baptism of fire on Saturday when they head to Hunters Hill to take on rivals Joeys in a rematch of last year’s unofficial GPS decider. 

Kings beat Joeys 43-19 in the final match of last season to claim the 2020 GPS premiership and hand the Cerise and Blue their only defeat of the season, but coach Hugh Perrett said it’ll be a very different looking Kings’ side that returns to Hunters Hill this weekend.  

“We haven’t got many back from last year, we’ve got a really young group. Toby Stewart, Riley Hemsworth and Eddie Arnett are the only three returning boys from last year’s first XV,” Perrett told Rugby News. 

“Playing Joeys at Joeys is always special. A few of the boys are new to the school so I think they’ll have their eyes opened to what GPS footy is all about pretty quickly on Saturday. 

“Even though it’s a trial, it’s always a special occasion with a big crowd and a lot of passion.”

Kings were disappointing in the second half in a 33-12 loss to Scots last weekend in both side’s opening match of the season. 

“We started well but probably didn’t have the fitness to finish out the game and that impacted our execution,” Perrett said. 

“Scots were well drilled and quite polished and they did us pretty comfortably in the end. 

“We were up 12-5 for most of the first half, then they scored to level things at half time. We were looking alright early but they looked dangerous every time they got the ball. 

“We spent a lot of time attacking down their end but we just couldn’t execute and that cost us.”

Kings will field their youngest first XV side in a number of years this season but Perrett said his group won’t use that as an excuse this weekend or this season. 

“We won’t be using the Waratahs excuse. It doesn’t matter if we’re young, we want to win and there are no excuses from us. If the boys are good enough, they’re old enough in my opinion and a lot of them are going really well so far.”

Joeys opened their preseason campaign with a 26-21 victory over Knox at Bankwest Stadium last weekend. 

“They’ll have some pretty slick backs and some hard running forwards,” Perrett said. 

“They’re always well drilled and they have consistent effort all game, they never give you an inch. 

“Execution will be the key for us. If we can minimise our errors and tidy up our performance from last week, then we’ll be in the mix.”