Has Jake really hit the nail on the head, regarding our preparation for the new season, are the days of pulling tractor tyres up Brantingham hills a thing of the past, we seem to cop so many injuries consistently over and over.

I questioned our fitness in the friendly matches, and overall our first game we seemed gassed latterly, of course we suffered some disruption in the Derby, but if one of own players says our training doesn’t compare what can we do.

Do we still use the chryrochambers (spelling sorry) which seemed to help in 2016/17 with injuries and recovery, or are they to expensive, is it about money, what and how do other teams compare, is it something we could emulate, what does Clifford do differently in Oz.

Actually I thought fitness wasn't a big issue, played with 12 men for 50 minutes, only one sub for a while, I would have expected more than one try to be scored.

Guess we will see later in the season.

I'd bet every single NRL clubs pre season is tougher the. SL ones. They will have better facilities, more staff etc.

I took it more of a statement of how tough it is at the Cowboys.

Its warm weather training which makes a huge difference with more emphasis on speed training than we have here which is why the game is faster in the NRL and most of the players have a lot more pace

He is talking about last season when Smith had the idea of a slow build into fitness to try and cut down on injuries.
All that did was show we were unfit compared with the likes of HKR and clearly didnt work
This season Smith rightly has taken a different approach

I doubt any SL clubs pre season is as intense as the NRL but its still another damning comment about the state of the club, what exactly are they doing all week in training?

Was Clifford here for the start of pre season training?
Or later on when it was less fitness based?

I’d be shocked if our training was NRL standard, given their staff numbers, facilities and climate.

At least it will enable him to rip it up in the NRL, and not drop off in form like he did here.

He arrived in the December I believe, so missed the 'harder 'stuff, of which there was less last pre season anyway

The opening poster, commented about fitness in the derby, so this season.