By MARK RAYNER

Group 10 juniors got in early and began training for next year's Country Championships at Jack Arrow Oval over the weekend.

The two-day development camp was designed to give the players an opportunity to bond and improve their skills.

A total of 130 juniors from the under 12s through to the under 16s from all around the region participated in the event, which involved working on skills training on Saturday and then playing matches on the Sunday.

Country Rugby League development officer Wade Judd said the aim of the camp was to give players the chance to prepare well in advance of the championships.

"Just at the end of the year everyone has finished their footy and it's just an opportunity to get a bit of a headstart on the Country Championships," Judd said.

"If you look, we picked the side last year and had to go and play our first game the week after, so at least now we've got plenty of training in and we are right to go."

He said getting people like ARL development officer Brad Donald to the event allowed the players to develop their skills and prepare them for higher levels of football.

"When you get blokes like Brad Donald from the Canberra Raiders in, it's a really big help and it allows them to learn a bit about footy rather than just playing bush footy," Judd said.

"All day yesterday [Saturday] was skills training, we had Brad Donald from the Raiders down, and a heap of Group 10 coaches, including Graham Osborne, Kevin Grimshaw and a few others.

"We just had a heap of training, and today [Sunday] was basically working on team structure and games."

Judd is the coach of next year's Group 10 under 15s side and he expects them to develop into a very strong side.

"Looking at the quality out here at the moment, it's going to be a good season, there are some pretty good players out here," Judd said.

He said while the team lost all of their games this season as the under 14s, he felt the extra year of football would pay dividends.

"I think just the players starting to mature and becoming a football team. It's just a coming of age type thing I think."