O’neill full tilt on fitness

THE minute Queensland Rugby set out a return to training date, Scott O’neill went to work.

The North Ward coach has begun mapping out a month’s worth of flat-out fitness work and skills drills as his side sets its eyes on a Townsville and District Rugby Union grand final berth.

Fitness was the focus over a prolonged off-season after the

Old Boys ran out of steam at the back end of the season, bowing out in the preliminary final to a dogged Army.

While they have been keeping their distance, O’neill is confident his first-grade side have not lost their motivation in lockdown with weekly fitness challenges keeping players on their toes. Senior players have also kept in close contact with the rest of the squad to keep motivation levels high.

O’neill said any who had shirked their isolation workload would be caught out when the squads returned to training on the proposed June 1 date.

“We had a massive pre-season where we focused on our fitness, it has been one of our weaknesses from the last few seasons,” O’neill said.

“Not that it has been wasted, it will still be there, but it will only be there for the guys who have worked hard in the past few weeks.

“We will have to do a bit of restarting on our fitness but hopefully they have maintained some of that.

“I am sure there are a few boys that haven’t been doing enough and they will get found out. They will get found out in training and on the team sheet.

“We have a belief at the club that effort equals reward. We want to reward the boys and girls who have put in the effort over the last six weeks.

“I started to do some planning straight away around what we need to do. We have four to five weeks of training time, which is eight sessions before we get out on the field.

“We will do a fair bit of fitness and then into the skills stuff before finishing with a couple of sessions on structures.”

The TDRU is currently mapping out a restructured season behind closed doors, with the intention community rugby will be back on the field on July 1.

It is understood they are workshopping a number of ideas, including a shortened finals series to ensure each club gets as many regular season games as possible. Another idea involves the competition playing through two full rounds before going straight into a finals series.

TDRU president Terry Sheills told the Bulletin last week that the competition would aim to wrap up before the end of October.