Seibold using Tom Brady NFL approach to revamp training

Six-time NFL Super Bowl champion Tom Brady will be used as the unlikely source of inspiration for Brisbane's fringe first-graders as Anthony Seibold adopts an NFL approach to training.

The Broncos youthful squad is scheduled return to duty on Tuesday pending RLPA and NRL negotiations in the interim, while Queensland government social distancing rules to dictate whether that is at Red Hill or Seibold's "Plan B" base in Kingscliff on the NSW North Coast.

With the Intrust Super Premiership already cancelled for 2020, players outside of each club's top 17 every week will have no avenue to get regular game time.

Seibold plans to focus Brisbane's training into intense opposed sessions, adopting a regime more commonly found in American football franchises.

"I've had a really good look at the NFL. Over there, a team's reserves don't suit up, they train and don't play," Seibold told NRL.com.

"And they've got a job to do, many of them are on the scout team and prepare as the opposition team each week.

"There's a fantastic documentary called Year of the Quarterback where Tom Brady is mentioned in it.

"He talks about when he first started at the New England Patriots and he was the third-string quarterback.

"But he prepared every single week as if he was going to play that Sunday and he did that for a long time.

"And at one stage the first and second-string quarterbacks got injured and he got his chance and because he had prepared every single week to play top-line NFL, he never looked back, he played his entire career from there on.

"I reckon that's a great tale to tell our players. 'Your game every week isn't on Saturday in the Queensland Cup or NSW Cup, the way you impress the coaches is how you turn up every single day at training. Your job for the team is to prepare like the opposition team and prepare our 17 like they do in the NFL'."

While the NSWRL has announced plans to potentially bring back the Ron Massey Cup in July, it is unlikely NRL squad members could use the senior competition to build match fitness due to strict coronavirus restrictions.

Competition for starting spots at Red Hill is expected to be especially fierce from the NRL's proposed May 28 restart date.

Representative forwards David Fifita (knee) and Tevita Pangai jnr (suspension) will be absent for the first few weeks of the rescheduled season. 

The pair's absence will be offset by the returns of Alex Glenn (hamstring) and Joe Ofahengaue (club suspension) while Matt Lodge (knee) is also pushing to be back in round three.

With rising youngsters Herbie Farnworth, Tesi Niu and Xavier Coates keeping the heat on veteran Darius Boyd out wide, utility Corey Paix doing likewise alongside Andrew McCullough and a host of big men also coming through the ranks, Broncos training sessions shape as a particularly competitive classroom for players running with the second-string "Renegades" side.

"Our Renegade group, they train as our opposition in attack and defence all week and that's the same scenario as the NFL," Seibold said.

"It's a great opportunity for young players to develop because you're using different shapes, you're playing other players and other teams roles really well, you're learning things you otherwise necessarily wouldn't.

"If you're a young guy at any of the 16 NRL clubs what better way to start your career than marking up on a guy like Darius at our club, or Cameron Smith at the Storm day-in, day-out?"