Warriors being intensive training for NRL restart
As they consider taking over a five-star resort on the NSW Central Coast, the Warriors are throwing themselves into training with breathtaking intensity, including three gym sessions a day.
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Warriors captain Roger Tuivasa-Sheck has revealed quarantined players are hitting the gym up to three times a day — every day — as a five-star NSW Central Coast resort now firms as their next Australian home.
Currently locked down in a fenced Tamworth fortress, the Warriors have officially become the first NRL team back into training after coach Stephen Kearney pushed small groups through separate fitness and skills sessions on Tuesday.
Speaking afterwards, Tuivasa-Sheck explained that with a makeshift gym constructed on the ground floor of their Mercure hotel, the playing group had also been using their ample-free time to resume heavy lifting programs.
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“The boys are so keen, some are in the gym two, three times a day,” he said. “Other guys are on the rower, or stretching, the boys are just excited.”
And as for that first fitness hit out?
“From today, it’s got real,” Tuivasa-Sheck confirmed via zoom.
“Getting back on the field together, it’s a different type of training to being in your house or backyard.
“I think 60 metres measured at home compared to the real thing … (laughs) there’s a big difference.”
After 14 days quarantined in Tamworth, the Warriors will shift to the Central Coast where the Magenta Shore Golf and Country Club is now being considered as a potential base.
Apart from having previously hosted the NSW Origin side, Parramatta coach Brad Arthur also took his Eels players to a pre-season camp at the venue before starting 2020 with consecutive wins.
Another potential base under consideration is the Star of the Sea Resort in Terrigal.
Warriors officials are so far keeping silent on where they’ll eventually end up, while a Magenta Shores spokesperson said only on Tuesday that staff had been instructed not to comment.
“They aren’t here (now) I’ve been told not to say anything about the Warriors, sorry,” she said.
The New Zealanders’ arrival and return to training in Australia comes only days after NRL superstars Nathan Cleary, Latrell Mitchell and Josh Addo-Carr were caught breaching social distancing guidelines.
Asked his thoughts on the breaches, given the sacrifices his own team was making, Tuiavasa-Sheck said: “Those actions occurred before our move so we were aware of the risk coming over — that we only get one shot at this.
“And we want to make the most of it.
“We’re just worried about our own little bubble and making sure the next report that comes out isn’t us.
“And I think the whole NRL is ready to move on, so we’re getting ready to do our part.”
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Already, Kearney has instructed players to limit social media posts while the 40 staff employed to look after the Warriors have also been instructed to avoid using mobile phones while on the premises.
“There will be nothing coming from inside this venue,” Wests Entertainment Group CEO Rod Laing said this week.
Elsewhere, Tuivasa-Sheck said he not only hoped the club would eventually bring a home game to Scully Park, but that the New Zealand Test team would also have the chance to play internationals in Tamworth at the end of the year.