Wayne Bennett hailed the Dolphins’ pre-season as one of the best preparations in his almost 50 years of coaching and praised the condition of his players ahead of the first round of the NRL.
“We’ve done a lot of testing on the fitness levels and weights of our players over the last few weeks, and I have to say everyone is in top shape,” Bennett said at the Dolphins’ season presentation on Friday. he said.
“No one is in the Fat Club. They all try to stay away from it. This also shows their dedication to each other.”
“I don’t think we’ve had a preseason like this with a team in a long time.”
Prop Josh Kerr lost 10kg during the off-season, as did big-time center Valins Te Whare, and Tesi Niu revealed he lost 8kg last month.
Bennett will be at the helm of the Dolphins in his final year as head coach in 2024, but Kerr said the 74-year-old is as motivated as ever and his players have responded. .
“Wayne is great at raising the bar in training and always being vocal about it,” Kerr said.
“He came in on the first day of preseason and told us about the standards. All the players were talking about him wanting to do well.”
The Dolphins will start the season on March 10 against North Queensland at Suncorp Stadium.
Last year, the Dolphins were expected by many pundits to finish in last place and hardly win in their first year, but they tasted nine wins before finishing 13th.
Mr Bennett gave a short speech to Dolphins fans at the Queensland Art Gallery on Friday night.
He didn’t promise us a place in the finals, but he gave us hope.
“Last year, we didn’t make any promises about whether we were going to do this or that. I told them last year that I expected them to do their best,” Bennett said.
“They did that. All I ask of them this year is to go out and be proud of each other and make you proud of them.
“Then we give ourselves a real chance to be the competitive soccer team and club we want to be.”