St George Illawarra Dragons prop Jack de Belin has welcomed the reduced interchange rule which will take affect at the start of the new Premiership campaign.
The NRL have introduced new rules which will reduce the number of interchanges from ten to eight with a shot clock to also be will be utilised to reduce stoppages under landmark changes.
Click Here To Become A Red V Member And March With Us In 2016!
De Belin has also welcomed the arrival of new Assistant Coach Jason Demetriou to work on the team’s attacking prowess and is already seeing the benefit following the 46-10 win over the New Zealand Warriors on the weekend.
“I was stoked when I found out the interchanges were getting shortened as for someone like me who likes to play big minutes it really suits my game,” said De Belin.
“Our defence is our identity and we knew that last season but throughout the year we struggled to score points at certain times.
“It has been a real focus point throughout this pre-season to get out attack right and Jason Demetriou was brought in for that reason to boost our attack.
“We can take a lot out of the game against the Warriors who are a good side.
“We hung in there early on and scored some points which was our downfall last season so there are positive signs to take from the game leading into the season.
“Also having guys like Russell Packer with us will help and he has been massive during the trials due to his strength and aggression to win.
“It’s something that we have kind of missed these past number of years having super heavy forwards but the Club has recruited well and we have a bit of extra grunt up front.
“I’m feeling really good and I’ve had a good pre-season and am ready to go for the opening game of the season.
“I felt that last season was my breakout year and I hope representative honours are around the corner this year.
“I’ve been here for a long time now even though I am pretty young still I am one of the more senior blokes you could say with the amount of new faces and younger players in the squad.”
