Former NFL star Todd Gurley joins Cronulla Sharks training ahead of Las Vegas trip
Sharks star Nicho Hynes has sought out the advice of former NFL star Todd Gurley as he prepares to take on Las Vegas, while backing halves partner Braydon Trindall for a breakout season.
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Sharks halfback Nicho Hynes has sought after advice from NFL great Todd Gurley ahead of his strictly “business” trip to Las Vegas.
Ahead of their Sin City season opener against the reigning four time premiers Penrith, the Sharks are taking an extra look at what advantages they can use when moving to the smaller field at Allegiant Stadium.
Hynes and his Sharks had former Los Angeles Ram Gurley make an appearance at training on Friday to give some tips on dealing with the bright lights of Sin City.
“It was a good experience, someone of his stature. He was the goat at some stage of his career, a few years ago. Very exciting,” Hynes said.
“It’s business at the moment, when we get chatting about it. It’s exciting. It’ll be real, it’s around the corner. When we do discuss it, it’s exciting. But we’re not discussing it heaps.”
While Gurley made a strong impression, Hynes is still considering reaching out to players that made the trip last year for some guidance.
“We’ve discussed it briefly the other day but it’s something as it gets closer we’re going to have to think about it a little more, maybe reach out to some of the players that played there last year and discuss what they did,” he said.
Speaking on his halves partner for the trip, Hynes revealed that Vegas won’t be a roll of the dice for teammate Brandon Trindall after a rollercoaster 2024.
Coming off the back of a season which included a trip to rehab, surgery, career best form and a shiny new contact, Hynes assured fans’, their excitement at the prospect of the Sharks breakout star is warranted.
Trindall underwent surgery this off season, and in a delight to the Sharks faithful he has started training for what looks to be a massive 2025.
“He is slowly getting back in the field from his operation so the sooner he can be on the field the better,” Hynes said.
“He’s been slicing in really nicely and it’s been exciting times for Tricky.
“He just got rewarded with a really good contract and it’s very well deserved. I can only see us building our combination better.”
Trindall is in the hot seat to play in the halves beside Hynes, but the form of Dragons bound utility Daniel Atkinson is also weighing in heavily on coach Craig Fitzgibbon’s decision.
LA FIRES FORCE CHANGES TO SHARKS’ LAS VEGAS PREPARATIONS
—Pamela Whaley
Devastating fires ripping through southern California have forced Cronulla to make a late change to their preparations for Las Vegas.
The Sharks were set to spend five nights in Los Angeles before meeting the remaining teams in Sin City ahead of the season opener, but that has been cut back to four as they struggled to locate a suitable training field for their main session of the week.
The squad will be out of danger in downtown LA at the historic Biltmore Hotel, but the catastrophic fires, which have now killed 27 people over the past few weeks, have complicated plans.
Cronulla are the only travelling NRL team to make a detour prior to landing in Vegas for the March 1 blockbuster, with Penrith, Canberra and the Warriors all heading directly to the city to prepare.
Sharks football manager Mark Noakes has been working around the clock to lock in a final itinerary.
“We were leaving here on Thursday the 20th, and we were going to do Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday night and then do our main session on Tuesday in LA and then fly (to Vegas), but because of what’s happened recently unfortunately with the fires and all the confusion over there, it was just easier, I couldn’t really facilitate a field for us,” he said.
“So we’re going to Vegas a day early on the Monday, and will do our main training session on the Tuesday in Vegas.”
In the lead up, the Sharks will train at the University of Southern California, which was unavailable for the squad’s main session, while backup plans with LA Galaxy couldn’t be confirmed until a week out from the trip.
The uncertainty of weather in the area meant the risk was too big to bank on.
They will now do their main session of the week at James Regional Sports Park, before facing Penrith in the round one blockbuster on Saturday night.
Panthers, Raiders and Warriors all arrive in town around February 20 and will stay at the sprawling Resort World Complex, while the Australian and English women’s teams have been booked into the Park MGM on the heart of the strip.
All teams have access to field training facilities booked by the NRL, and will do weights at the state of the art UFC gym.
The Sharks are the only team to do it differently.
Noakes said he looked hard at what the Roosters did to prepare ahead of last year’s event and tried to model their plans accordingly.
He visited the States in November on a reconnaissance mission, staying at the Biltmore and getting a feel for LA traffic and training grounds before joining staff from rival clubs on a tour of Allegiant Stadium and Las Vegas.
“It was amazing,” he said of the trip.
“(To go to LA), we wanted to give (the players) an experience, we didn’t want to be in Las Vegas for the whole time.
“The first few days will just be a bit of downtime and to have the experience of being in America, a lot of them haven’t been before.”
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Originally published as Former NFL star Todd Gurley joins Cronulla Sharks training ahead of Las Vegas trip
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