Dolphins forward Kenneath Bromwich has revealed that pre-season has gone up a gear at the Dolphins after a heartbreaking finish to the 2024 NRL season.
The Dolphins were in the mix for the finals in their second season of existence for much of the campaign despite facing multiple injuries and, at times, playing well understrength.
Those injuries were led in the forwards by Thomas Flegler and Tom Gilbert. Their two likely forward pack leaders barely played a game in 2024, but despite the adversity, the Dolphins only fell short of the finals on the final day of the regular season with a loss to the Newcastle Knights.
Speaking to the media this week, Bromwich said he believes standards have gone up a gear in the club's first pre-season of the post Wayne Bennett-era, with Kristian Woolf preparing for his first full season as an NRL head coach.
"Pre-season's been really, really hard at the moment, the standards have probably picked up a bit, I reckon," Bromwich said per NRL.com.
"Training's been a bit harder; everything's just gone up a notch โฆ standards have gone a bit up, and I think it should make a difference.
"You can't keep doing the same thing and expect a different result, so I think (we are) trying to get everybody a little bit fitter, that'll probably be the main goal of this pre-season, get everybody fitter and then go from there."
Bromwich also paid credit to representative players rejoining training before the end of their annual leave breaks.
"I think it lifts the standard of our training, I think those boys played quite a lot of footy and know what to do and know what to expect, so when they come early to training, it kind of lifts all the other boys around them and makes training sessions a bit better and it just makes everyone better," Bromwich said.
The Dolphins open their season against the South Sydney Rabbitohs on Friday, March 7.
