The Pickers injury curse continued on match-day when half-back Tyler Perrin had to pull out after aggravating a rib injury at training on Thursday night.

Centre/back-rower Scott Williams was also injured and while he suited up and sat on the bench, he was only ever going to play in an emergency.

In a last-minute reshuffle Frazer Price moved back into half-back and Gary Anderson (back from the Knights under-20s) and Reeve Howard started on the wings.

"I'm so proud of the boys, it was a huge turnaround from the way we were beaten by Wests. We didn't turn up to that game but we've really prepared well and dug deep all week and that was evident in the win today," Pickers skipper Brenton Horwood said.

"We had Scotty Wiliams on the bench but he has been carrying a bit of an injury, so we really only had three subs on the bench.

"We all had to dig deep, we've all been carrying niggles and we've been really looking forward to having the week off after this game, but we weren't going to have it if we didn't win this weekend.

"There was a huge feel in the team when we went over for our warm-up. We had a discussion during the week about what we needed to do to have a turnaround coming off the back of a bad loss."

The Pickers had winners across the field, but there was none better than Greg Morris who relished his return to fullback and led the players' player voting from young forwards Jayden Butterfiled and 18-year-old Callan Burgess.

"Greg was back in his natural position at fullback and I thought he really grasped the opportunity with both hands," Horwood said.

"Butsty and Callan were also terrific. Callan for a young fella is stepping up. He is only 18, it's his first year of first grade rugby league and he is topping that players' player list week in, week out.

"Butsy is just doing his thing, he loves the game, he keeps turning up playing hard."

Horwood said it was was important win for the Pickers on various levels but particularly important as it was back-row star Tylar Carter's 100^th game.

"It was great to get the win in Cart's 100th. He has been an outstanding player for this club but also an ambassador for it so to get the win in his milestone was especially important," Horwood said

"But in saying that any battle of the Coalfields we always want to win and be king of the Coalfields. Going forward that's going to put us in a good position going into the end of the season."

Morris was superb under the high-ball and continually had the Cessnock defence clutching at thin air with his darting runs. He set up several tries and finished with four goals.

Centre Marco Delapena had a great return from injury with a double, with tries at the eighth minute of each half.

Burgess barged across the line carrying three Goannas defenders just before the break to give Maitland a deserved 12-6 lead after Cessnock's Joe Bromage levelled the scores with a converted try under the posts at the 20 minute mark.

Goannas utility Nic Lawrence continues to shine and darted across the line beside the posts from dummyhalf to score the Goannas' sole try in the second half.

It brought the score back to 16-12 but on the back of a powerful run by Butterfiled, Horwood scored under the posts in the 59th minute and milestone man Carter was on hand to catch a knock-on by Joe Woodbury contesting a bomb with Pickers centre Matt Allwood.

The Pickers are at last getting some good news on the injury front with joint-skipper Sam Anderson expecting to return from a fractured foot in two weeks.

Still wearing a protective boot, Anderson said before the game that he expected to be fit for Maitland's next game against Lakes United on July 6, following a competition-wide bye.

The win and a loss by Kurri Kurri means Maitland jump to third on the table on 10 points, two points ahead of Kurri and Cessnock on 8.