Demanding conditioning chief John Noonan expects the Huddersfield Giants to start 2016 showing significant physical gains.
The Super League club’s new head of fitness has been delighted with the way the players have responded to his methods since taking over from Greg Brown at the end of last season.
After six weeks of punishing work, Noonan believes the hard work has paid off, and that this will be reflected in the trial games at Halifax on Sunday week (January 10), at Hull KR seven days later and at home to Catalans Dragons on Saturday, January 23.
“I think everyone in the squad feels ready to go again and put their efforts to the test in the pre-season fixtures,” said Noonan.
“We ramped up the training for the six weeks before Christmas and we’re delighted with the results, but we knew we needed to pull back a little bit for the festive period.
“The boys need time to recover to make sure they come back fitter, better, stronger and feel ready to go for the next block of training as the start of the season in early February gets closer. They also needed to spend some time with their families, so they could mentally escape from what has been a tough six weeks.”
And Noonan has revealed training will change in the build-up to the season’s opener at St Helens on Friday, February 5.
“I think the overall amount of training done will differ,” he added.
“We’ve got the engine but we’re just looking to make those finer tweaks.”
