Returning earlier than initially planned, Corey Harawira-Naera is looking forward to a full pre-season ahead of the 2023 season.
With pre-season training into the third week, a few senior players have come back early including Tom Starling, Jamal Fogarty and Harawira-Naera.
For Harawira-Naera, he wanted to come back early to push himself and to get to know some of the younger players.
“I just want to be fit. I want to have a full pre-season, I haven’t had a full pre-season for a while," Harawira-Naera said.
"Last year I missed a good two months, the year before we had all the COVID stuff and we finished the year a bit later so didn’t get much time off anyway.
"I’ve challenged myself to try and do every session this year, broken or not, to try and stay on the field and get as many kilometres under my belt as I can.”
Training alongside the young guns of the Raiders and some new faces, Harawira-Naera has been impressed with what he has seen so far, with plenty of healthy competition for spots.
“You’ve got the guys that got a taste of NRL last year like Trey Mooney and Ata Mariota and then our NSW Cup player of the year Peter Hola as well. They’ve also brought in Pasami Saulo and a young 13 from Penrith in Hohepa Puru," Harawira-Naera said.
"They’re the guys who I think are putting their hands up already. I guess when you get that taste of NRL it makes you hungrier to get more games under your belt.
"I think Peter himself was a bit disappointed he didn’t get any games last year but he has been training pretty hard this time around and he’s come back in good shape.
"It looks like there could be a few spots up for grabs and I think a lot of the boys are taking the challenge and trying to get into the 17 for round one.”
One of Harawira-Naera's goals for next season is to be lighter, something he says will be more tailored to how the current game is played.
"I think Huddo [Hudson Young] has shown, the change in back rowers is probably starting to get lighter with the way the game is going now," Harawira-Naera said.
"I’m not trying to copy him but I feel like if you are carrying around extra kgs that you don’t really need to, it’s something I’m trying to pull back a bit on. I was playing about 105 kgs last season and I want to try and play at about 100-103 this year. It’s not much but in an 80 minute performance it does tally up."
