PLAYER-BOSS Paul March will draw on lessons learned under some of rugby league's top coaches when his reign at York City Knights starts in earnest this weekend.

And, like them, he will have to do his coaching from the sidelines, in the early part of the season at least, rather than on the pitch as planned, after his injury - a broken hand suffered in the last friendly of pre-season - ruled him out of action for between six and 12 weeks.

Former Super League star March became the Knights' fourth coach in five years when he replaced Mick Cook in the off-season. And, although, at 28, he became the youngest boss in the National League, he says experience gained under some leading bosses means he should be up to the task.

"During my long career I've played under some good coaches," he said, having played all of his career at full-time level.

"Tony Smith, who's now the Great Britain and England coach, was one. I was under him for three years at Huddersfield and I learned a lot off him, and Jon Sharp was their coach after that. Both of them are very technical in what they do.

"Then I was under John Kear at Wakefield. He's a bit different; he knows how to motivate teams and get them up for games.

"If I can take a bit from each of those three, hopefully I've got what it takes to make it as a coach in my own right."

His injury means he will have to concentrate on the coaching part of his role, rather than the playing side, for the time being - thus tweaking the match-day coaching arrangement he had with assistant-boss James Ratcliffe, the former Dewsbury Rams backroom staffer.

"I would have liked to be out there coaching from the field," he admitted. "I will now just have to have more input in training and before games to make sure the lads who take the field know exactly what I expect of them.

"It's going to be frustrating for myself - I hate watching - but the coaching will take my mind off not playing until I get fit again."

It promises to be a coaching baptism of fire for scrum-half March in a National League Two division that could be as demanding, if not more so, than last season, when the Knights finished in a disappointing sixth place.

Oldham, play-off finalists last year, have splashed the cash in a bid to be promoted, while Barrow, long-time contenders last season, and Doncaster - who were relegated amid financial trouble last term but have since regrouped, spent well and installed the great Ellery Hanley as head coach - are amid the bookmakers' early favourites.

March agrees that trio will be the ones to beat, but - in a change to the club's usual stance of not making predictions - he expects the Knights to be up there with them and says winning promotion, either automatically or via the play-offs, is "very high on the agenda".

"People are talking about the possibility of more than two teams going up (in a knock-on effect to the Super League franchise system), but we don't want to leave that to chance," said March.

"With the squad we've got, I can't see why we can't challenge for the top two.

"But it's going to be a challenge for all the top teams. Everybody has recruited well. I'm looking forward to it. I still believe Oldham, Doncaster and Barrow will be strong. A lot of it depends how teams gel. The likes of Rochdale and Keighley have brought in a lot of new players and could be dangerous. We will see."

How quickly his own team gels could also be a factor, given that a massive turnaround of players - 18 have gone and 21 come in - has taken place at Huntington Stadium.

Two defeats and one draw in pre-season means March is still looking for his first win in charge, but he said: "You don't read too much into pre-season games. We've gone three friendlies with no wins but I'm not looking into results. Friendlies are used in different ways."

Hopefully that first win will come on Sunday in the Northern Rail Cup opener against fellow NL2 side Gateshead. NL1 clubs Featherstone and Batley are the Knights' other opponents in the group section, and March said he would be treating the competition seriously in a bid to qualify for the knockout stages, but with one eye on the NL2 campaign that follows.

"There are games we're expected to win, and against Batley and Featherstone at home we're hoping to get a result," he explained.

"I said at the beginning we want to qualify for the knockout stages. That's our goal to start with and we will take it from there. On the way I can still makes changes and look at competition for places. That will hopefully set us up well for the league."