St George Illawarra Dragons centre hopeful Gerard Beale is eager for the season to commence following the reveal of the NRL draw on Wednesday.
The Dragons will commence their campaign in a marquee home blockbuster against Wests Tigers at ANZ Stadium, Olympic Park on Sunday, march 9.
Beale's own 2013 season was cut short after he re-ruptured his ACL graft and underwent intensive rehabilitation to be fit enough to commence pre-season training with the Red V.
And with Josh Dugan predicted to don the fullback jersey, the 23-year-old is focusing on fine-tuning his skills and growing as a player, anticipating that everything will fall into place during pre-season in time for season kick-off.
Pre-season has been great so far; everyone is gelling together well and were really looking forward to starting the season, said Beale.
The draw was just released and its good to see we have quite a few marquee games and really big games; Round 1 we play the Tigers and then Round 2 were off to New Zealand so it should be good.
The coaching staff have done really well in finding the areas where we were behind in when we played last season.
All the players are enthusiastic with the way weve been training and now were just getting hungry to play but theres still a long way yet.
Im feeling really good; Im lucky to have had Kyle Stanley to train with, weve both been able to push each other through.
Last season was frustrating watching the boys play and not being able to do anything, now Im training with the team and theres no injuries and were all putting in the hard yards.
I can easily play in the centres, obviously I just want to play good footy and everything else will take care of itself.
Dugan has packed on few so he will only be more dangerous as a player; already hes a tough player to tackle, so getting bigger will be beneficial to him and the team.
Not just Josh, but a lot of the boys have put on a bit of weight, but theyve also kept their fitness and that will hopefully show when were out on the field and in the results.
Click here to March With Us in 2014!
Click here for the Dragons 2014 Draw.
The Dragons will commence their campaign in a marquee home blockbuster against Wests Tigers at ANZ Stadium, Olympic Park on Sunday, march 9.
Beale's own 2013 season was cut short after he re-ruptured his ACL graft and underwent intensive rehabilitation to be fit enough to commence pre-season training with the Red V.
And with Josh Dugan predicted to don the fullback jersey, the 23-year-old is focusing on fine-tuning his skills and growing as a player, anticipating that everything will fall into place during pre-season in time for season kick-off.
Pre-season has been great so far; everyone is gelling together well and were really looking forward to starting the season, said Beale.
The draw was just released and its good to see we have quite a few marquee games and really big games; Round 1 we play the Tigers and then Round 2 were off to New Zealand so it should be good.
The coaching staff have done really well in finding the areas where we were behind in when we played last season.
All the players are enthusiastic with the way weve been training and now were just getting hungry to play but theres still a long way yet.
Im feeling really good; Im lucky to have had Kyle Stanley to train with, weve both been able to push each other through.
Last season was frustrating watching the boys play and not being able to do anything, now Im training with the team and theres no injuries and were all putting in the hard yards.
I can easily play in the centres, obviously I just want to play good footy and everything else will take care of itself.
Dugan has packed on few so he will only be more dangerous as a player; already hes a tough player to tackle, so getting bigger will be beneficial to him and the team.
Not just Josh, but a lot of the boys have put on a bit of weight, but theyve also kept their fitness and that will hopefully show when were out on the field and in the results.
Click here to March With Us in 2014!
Click here for the Dragons 2014 Draw.
