Head Coach Anthony Seibold heaped praise on the physical gains the South Sydney Rabbitohs have already made during a punishing start to pre-season and insists there is still plenty of room to grow.
Following eight gruelling weeks of workouts, Coach Seibold sent the players into their festive break with a punishing six-hour session which kicked off in the early hours of Wednesday morning.
Despite being pushed hard during the first phase of preparations, Coach Seibold believes the team is in fine physical condition heading into the Christmas break.
“Some of the guys have physically increased their size and their strength and their power,” said Coach Seibold.
“Other results will suggest that as well but the biggest area we need to improve is our footy.
Head Coach Anthony Seibold“I think we’ve made some really good gains in the gym.”
“Physically, the guys are in really good shape. We’re just making sure that the guys are aerobically fit but also from a repeat effort point of view that they are improving that part of their fitness. [Sport Science and Rehab Coach] Jarrod Wade has done a really good job.”
Implementing his own methods and styles into training, Coach Seibold says physical improvements are one thing but the next step is fine tuning their approach on the field.
“It’s all about installing our game model,” added Coach Seibold.
“We made some changes to the way we want to play going forward so we work really hard on producing those kinds of things.
“We need to keep working hard on our football as we know there is still a lot of work to do.”
A big believer in broadening his personal knowledge, Coach Seibold continued his interest in cross code collaborations by visiting AFL side Western Bulldogs to spend some time with an old friend.
“I always enjoy going to other sports and looking at what they do and spending time with other coaches,” said Coach Seibold.
“Luke Beveridge is the head coach of the Western Bulldogs. He was their Premiership winning coach in 2016. I’ve got a good relationship with ‘Bevo’ so I was fortunate enough to go down there on Thursday and Friday last week and observe what they are doing from a training point of view.”
Having now experienced two different AFL clubs in the space of a month, Coach Seibold is eager to implement his new knowledge in his training sessions with the first team squad.
“Every coach every club does things slightly differently there some really good personal takeaways for myself,” said Coach Seibold.
“Certainly whenever you go into another environment, you can always learn that’s something that I’ll never stop doing. You never stop learning. We preach that to the players, to always continuously looking to grow.”
