Radley out to make amends to teammates

Roosters enforcer Victor Radley has no plans to tone down the aggression in his game but admits he feels a debt has to be repaid to teammates for his suspensions last year which left the team short while also dealing with a horror injury toll.

Radley believes the changes he needs to make to his game to avoid further time on the sidelines are minor technical tweaks around his footwork and tackle height rather than the aggressive style his teammates and Roosters fans love.

"I am looking forward to paying a bit back," Radley said.

"I didn't really hold my weight last year. Hopefully I have worked hard enough and am in a good position too, so really pay back a bit."

Asked to clarify why he didn't feel he pulled his weight, he added: "I feel like the suspensions.

"I didn't start until round three or four because of my knee. And then I missed five weeks, missed another three.

"And then with all the injuries we had going on, it was really hard for me to sit on the sideline fit with all the injuries we had."

Seeing the likes of Jared Warea-Hargreaves and Siosiua Taukeiaho playing huge minutes through injury pain of their own to lead the team while the likes of Boyd Cordner, Jake Friend, Lindsay Collins and others were unable to play through injury was the hardest part.

"It was really difficult," Radley added.

"The last two years I haven't played as much as I would have liked to. When I came back in November I had to put my best foot forward so it should be sweet."

While Radley is determined not to endure the same suspension issues this year, he believes some minor technical tweaks will keep him out of trouble.

"I didn't need to change my aggression but I have a lot of stuff to work on," he said.

"I've worked on a lot of stuff around my footwork and my shoulder level at times. But mostly it's around my footwork, which is stuff I have been working on for years.

"Not over striding and getting myself into positions where I can't make split second decisions where it ends badly. I have been working really hard on that, especially with my knee, just keeping my feet short and stuff like that."

After missing the last off-season injured, Radley is looking forward to hitting the ground running and was hopeful the adversity the squad played through last season would stand them in good stead.

"I think a lot of people built a lot of resilience last year," he said.

"Especially these people who just stood up week on week. There is a lot of trust and belief in the team from last year. Having these players back and having endured what happened last year, it's going to be good and everyone has a lot of confidence and trust in each other."

After missing the last off-season injured, Radley is looking forward to hitting the ground running and finally playing alongside Luke Keary for the first time since round seven, 2020, after each endured ACL layoffs.

"I haven't played with Keary since before I did my knee; It's been a while," Radley said.

"You should see training with him, it feels good. I can't wait until next week when everyone is at the same level and everyone is training together and ready to."