The good news is that farmer Sam Heron is back home after being trapped for an hour under his overturned tractor and airlifted to hospital. A reasonable excuse for missing out on what would have been his league debut at stand-off -in place of Ollie Connolly who is away.
Sam is battered and bruised, but should be back in action fairly soon. Zac moves to 10 - a position he's occupied a number of times before.
Max Tennant says his brother Jake is a better player and the younger sibling will get a chance to prove it when makes his debut on the wing. Jacob Parker returning to start at full back.
Up front, Adam Coates is away while Messrs Barker and Brown have charitable intentions this weekend. However, Browny is on the bench as he looks to conserve his energy for the Great North run on Sunday.
It allows second team skipper James Tyers to partner Jake Linighan in the second row with Aidan Jackson-Smith returning at hooker. He'll pack down alongside Cameron Ellison and Adam Hutchinson - two of the former Academy lads who have filled out and matured during lockdown.
Tom Shaw is back in serious training and adds some extra height and strength to the proceedings as he starts in the back row alongside Izzy Robinson and Chris Atkins, who both had fine games against Peterlee and Horden last week.
Spare a thought for Martin Todd who was once a lightning quick length-of-the- field try scorer. He's now in the Christiano Ronaldo age bracket, has been training hard and would have been on the bench at Ponteland if he hadn't overdone it and strained his groin. Danny Quinn comes in instead after his wedding last week - congrats to another excellent club man.
The lads wore their pink breast cancer charity shirts last week, and will probably do so again so they can unveil the new Seymour sponsored strip at next week's home game against Aspatria.
15 JACOB PARKER