WITH Super League’s big kick off now less than a week away, the heavy toil of pre-season is over and the Saints players and staff turn their eyes to Catalans on Thursday.
Saints coach Kristian Woolf was asked about the build-up, the new spine and how things will be mixed up at dummy half with the arrival of Joey Lussick.
MC: Are you glad to be actually preparing for a game day now?
KW: It is great, but I really enjoy pre-season to be honest. You get the great work ethic out of the players, you get to work really hard and you get to try and identify a couple of things that you want to improve and work towards those, and that is what we have done.
I am really happy with what we have done so far through the pre-season and where we are at, but you get to that point where you just want to see the players playing and challenged again.
Players don’t necessarily like pre-seasons as much as coaches as much as coaches do, but they are ready to get out there and play as well.
MC: When does the pre-season load taper down, and when does game preparation start?
KW: Our toughest week was last week. This week has been tough too, but not as big as last week. Thursday was our last big session as part of the pre-season. We will give them recovery on Friday and a day off on Saturday and then our preparation starts Sunday for Round One. They can all get excited by that.
MC: The spine of your team has slowly evolved, different to the one that started last season. Will it take time to bed in?
KW: I am not expecting it to take too much time. We have got some young guys in some key positions there and we are quite new. I am not saying that we are going to get everything spot on and that we are going to be perfect straight away.
We knew that there are going to be some things to work on, particularly with those young guys, and there may be things that they may not get right at different times of the year.
If you look at the way young Lewis Dodd has carried himself as a half through the back end of last year.
He has shown not only that he can jump into this team, steer this team around and be a big factor in how we win games, but he has done that in a Grand Final and you don’t get any more pressure or expectation than a Grand Final and he did that exceptionally well.
He is only going to be better for the fact that he knows he is our seven and he gets the opportunity now to express himself and make that his own and really be him as a player.
I put Jack in the same boat there – he has played a lot more footy for us and he has obviously been a bit more of a stable player in the team the last couple of years.
He gets to really own the Number 1, make that his own, and get to express himself and be in a position where he gets his hands on the footy and have an impact on every game.
We are going to see both of those young players go to a new level and show what they are capable of in Super League but in being top players in this competition.
For that reason, I have every confidence that we are not going to take time in settling as a 9, 6, 7, 1 – I think we are going to be ready to hit the ground running straight away.
MC: Does Joey Lussick’s addition gives you the opportunity to mix things up at dummy half?
KW: He is a great signing. We have brought him over for a specific reason, not only is he a great support for James Roby but he’s got similar skillsets but also some differences to his game.
His running game is terrific, and he showed that in Al Walmsley’s testimonial and plenty of times against us playing for Salford, and also over in the NRL playing for Parramatta.
He has that side to his game, he has got a real work ethic, a great defensive attitude and an exceptional kicking game. He complements James Roby really well and gives us the ability to manage James Roby a little bit better than what we did last year.
That said, it didn’t affect James Roby in the big games last year – where he played 80 minutes like he was still 25. It gives us the opportunity to manage him more through the year.
There may be some games where we don’t play James Roby and let Joey Lussick play 80 minutes, and he is very capable of that and has done it plenty of times.
There will be other games where James plays 40-50 and Joey does similar. Joey’s arrival gives us that ability and what you see off the back of that is a fresher James Roby at particular times through the year as well as a fresh Joey Lussick to call on, too.
Pictures: Bernard Platt
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