12 weeks of preseason will finally be put to the test when we face Huddersfield down at Lockwood Park on Saturday in the first league game of the 2023/24 season.

The lads’ effort and attitude has been faultless since that first week in June and the skills and fitness levels have caught up with every training session that has passed (thanks in no small part to the 3 Broncos tests and a Bleep test to boot!). We have regularly had 25+ players down with the Buccaneers and Colts joining in with first team training, meaning massive developments are being seen across the club.

Additions to the coaching structure have also brought new impetus to training. Attack coach Maliq Holden has brought fresh ideas to our attacking shape, whilst scrum coach Lewis Thiede has added valuable knowledge at the set piece.

Our preseason games have seen mixed fortunes but lots of learning opportunities for the squad. A tough start against a strong Sedgley side was followed by a 55-5 victory against Pontefract last week. The pleasing thing from my point of view is that the weaknesses from the first game were ironed out against Ponte. We will be working hard in training this week on the final touches leading in to Huddersfield.

It will be exciting to see what this group of players can achieve this season! We have lost some valuable experience to retirement but kept the core of the squad together and added some talented young players. As a squad, we will be aiming to improve on last year’s third place finish, a difficult task in a tough league with more Yorkshire derbies than ever!

We hope to see you all down at Brantingham Park through the season and any away support will be very much appreciated as usual!