Recruit Junior Paulo impresses as Parramatta begin pre-season slog
ARGUABLY Parramatta’s biggest signing in every sense, Junior Paulo celebrated opening day of pre-season by sweating through 3km of that most famous, and maligned, of rugby league fitness tests. SEE THE PICTURES
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DAY one and Junior Paulo gets tossed into a $%*&ing beep test.
Beautiful.
Arguably Parramatta’s biggest signing in every sense, Paulo celebrated opening day of the 2019 pre-season by sweating through 3km of that most famous, and maligned, of rugby league fitness tests.
Better, the big unit wasn’t first man out.
Instead, and with a pair of speakers blasting those beeps of increasing quickness across the training paddock at Eels HQ, the notoriously heavy prop survived one, two, even three withdrawals before he too was forced to concede — then join them jogging slow laps of the oval.
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And as for who eventually who won out?
Well, no surprises there.
Yep, The King — Clint Gutherson.
Although it must be noted the enigmatic Eels utility only just squeaked home ahead of anonymous teenage halfback Dylan Brown.
Indeed, while most media focus this week has surrounded those Parramatta players not in attendance on opening day — specifically, Jarryd Hayne, Michael Jennings and new recruit Blake Ferguson — the biggest surprise was the efforts of a 2017 Australian Schoolboy wearing red boots with matching socks.
Apparently, boasts the confidence required to rock such an ensemble too.
Considered a future NRL player by those who count at Parramatta, Brown is one of 10 Academy players invited to sweat through this newest pre-season by head coach Brad Arthur.
And while he was an SG Ball premiership winner two years ago, the youngster almost went and claimed an even bigger prize Thursday when he came within one ‘beep’ of upsetting Gutherson’s reign as Eels’ Fittest Man.
The other undeniable standout was veteran prop Timmy Mannah who, despite being in his 11th consecutive pre-season, was also still alive when the test approached level 20 and the survivors had been reduced to single figures.
Elsewhere, and as expected, Hayne was a no-show as his contract dramas, believed to centre around that $700,000 asking price, continue to drag on.
And while there is talk of Jennings being released to join Newcastle, the club expects the 30-year-old centre to be back on deck and headed to a pre-season camp in Armidale from Sunday.
A bus Paulo will be on too.
Likely the Eels’ most important signing, especially given the punch he offers when firing, the Samoan powerhouse certainly looked every bit his Wikipedia weight — 123kg — when he emerged for training on Thursday.
However, after three years with Canberra, the 24-year-old toiled hard in his first day back at the club he was released from in 2016 — after bizarre cameos with both convicted criminals and third grade rugby.
Apart from surviving the first three beep test cuts, Paulo also worked hard in the ensuing sprints and defensive drills to generally impress Eels head of performance Adrian Jimenez.
In fact, the only fella upset with proceedings was the irate neighbour who, apparently woken before 7am as Parramatta staffers trialled the beep test speakers, approached The Daily Telegraph asking who was responsible for said noise and how much more was coming?
At which point, and with the players still running, we considered pointing him to Paulo.
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