The first week of training is underway, the players have blown off the cobwebs and got stuck right into the long preparations for round one of the season.
A new era at South Sydney now in procession, plenty of the players have come back with an even stronger work ethic than ever before, which has impressed Head of High Performance, Paul Devlin.
“I find it hard to single players out. We spend a lot of time measuring and establishing base line targets to measure progress in the first couple of weeks," said Devlin
“People stand out in different areas but as far as body compositions there has been some real stand outs, some the of guys have taken real care of their body in the off season, which is good for us because it's an area where we set a really high standard.
“From a running point of view big George Burgess is training exceptionally well, when the big guys is in full flight he’s very impressive and Cody walker has returned in really good shape as well.”
With hard work back on the agenda, Devlin has been impressed so far with the performance from the players, while enjoying a fresh approach to the first week of training.
“It’s a really exciting time for myself and the performance staff, we get to have a lot contact time with the players so they’ve come back very committed after their offseason and it’s been a really strong start to preseason training.”
With round one of the 2018 season still faraway, Devlin highlights the importance of being prepared and having routine, which allow the players the consistency they deserve.
“It’s my second year I’ve know Anthony (Seibold) for long time and he’s very well planned as a head coach,” said Devlin.
“We are exceptionally well planned right now and we pride ourselves on that. We are making sure that the players can see that and that everything is done for a reason.”
Despite the start of the season being 5 months away, Devlin wants to make sure that the standards are maintain right through to the end of the new year and further.
“They’ve dealt with it pretty well, the players enjoy being told what to and what the parameters are and how we’re going to measure their progress.
"We do have a committed group here they rip in and train hard. The young guys have done especially well, there has been a massive step up in intensity this week since the senior players came back into the training group so we will be looking to maintain those standard through the next few weeks.”
