Boyd: I can't remember ever running this fast

Darius Boyd has been running faster at Brisbane training than any time in his life and the trials can't come quick enough for the 292-game veteran.

Boyd has more than wound back the clock. He's reinvented the wheel, and he has the GPS results to prove it.

The 31-year-old fullback credits a conditioning program put together by new high performance chief Paul Devlin and the fact that the hamstring issues that plagued his 2018 pre-season are well behind him.

"I have been running some really quick times with my metres per second on my GPS," Boyd told NRL.com.

"Some of the scores I have been given, I can't remember ever running that fast, unless it was when I was 18, 19, 20 and back in the days when we didn't have GPS … but to be honest I don't remember ever being given feedback about running that quick.

"Devs has been saying that some of the scores I've been getting, whether it is how many sprints I have been doing through a session or how much high speed running, are some of the top results he's seen. He said I'm matching some of the [top] guys at other clubs he's seen.

"The whole strength and conditioning program has been really good. It is still taxing and still very hard but it is very game-specific. I'm not saying it wasn't good before, but I've been doing the same thing for 13 years and sometimes change is great."

Boyd has been tearing across the Red Hill training paddock in conditioning sessions. There has been a real spring in his step so in one sense the results are not surprising. They have certainly been encouraging.

"I wasn't at my best last year and I wasn't enjoying football either. I probably lost a bit of confidence and you doubt yourself when you get a bit older, so it is just really good to have that feedback," he said.

"I have always tried to train at a really high standard but after last year - with being down with performances, down on confidence and my body not probably feeling 100% - I feel it has been a real positive for me."

Boyd said he was just revitalised by being back to his "normal self". He felt his last six weeks of 2018 were promising as he started to get confidence back in his hamstrings and body generally.

"I can't wait for the trials to hurry up, whereas I couldn't even play a trial last year," he said.

"I will probably only play the last trial [against the Titans on March 2] but I am in that mood where you want to get out there and play in the first one and have a crack.

"I can't wait to come to training every day to be honest. I'm not sure if that is the new scheme and doing some things different, or whether it's just being fit and healthy, or getting some good feedback and doing some great things out on the training field. It is probably a combination of all those things."

Boyd said he was relishing Devlin's presence while also making the point he'd always been well trained by former high performance chief Jeremy Hickmans.

"One thing Devs has brought is that his attention to detail is through the roof," Boyd said.

"There is a lot of feedback around game-specific things and around GPS. After most weeks we always get a sheet of everything we've done.

"Even when we come in for lunch and breakfast we couldn't get fed any better high-quality food. You come in here and have chicken, healthy salads, salmon or sushi. I feel like I don't have to go food shopping anymore, just go home and cook dinner is all I have to do."

Boyd has three years to run on his Broncos deal but the skipper has put no end date on his career.

"I am not putting pressure on myself, but at the same time if I am enjoying my football and playing to a high standard, and feeling my normal self, I want to play for as long as I can," he said.

"I love the game so I just want to see how it goes."

For now, his main aim is to get out on the field and translate what has been a positive pre-season into 80 minutes of footy.

"We are running new shapes and everything is basically new with what Seibs [Anthony Seibold] and the coaching staff want to implement, whether that is in attack or defence," Boyd said.

"You kind of want to implement that sooner rather than later and get out on the field and see where we are at and what we can do."