It’s been almost four months since Brad Dwyer last played a competitive Rugby League match, which has made him even more determined to impress in his first outing as a Hull FC player.
Dwyer could well make his maiden FC appearance in the club’s first pre-season fixture of 2023 against Sheffield Eagles a week on Sunday, since his arrival from last year’s Grand Finalists Leeds Rhinos.
The 28-year-old last played a competitive match on 3rd September. So after a long spell without game time, Dwyer is chomping at the bit to not only get back to action, but also to impress as a Hull FC player.
“I think I’m going to get a run out against Sheffield, so I’m really looking forward to that and pulling a Hull jersey on for the first time,” he said.
“Pre-season is a difficult time because you want to impress and you endure such a long time without any matches, and it’s only really in the matches where you can truly impress.
“But now we’re getting to that point where we have a couple of games on the horizon, I’m really excited for it.
“Rugby League is what I make a living out of, so there’s not a great deal to look forward to if you’ve no game at the weekend!
“There’s a big trait in me that I’m hellbent on impressing. So if there’s no games to impress in, it can be a bit of a frustrating time.
“But the most exciting thing for me is knowing that we’re nearly at that stage where I have the opportunity to go out there and impress.”
It’s been a long wait for Dwyer, who has now accumulated over two months of pre-season training sessions under Tony Smith, with whom he previously worked under as a Warrington player.
Smith brought in an alternative approach to pre-season training, but stayed true to his word before Christmas, when he said his players could expect sessions to be more intense in the New Year.
Dwyer explained how the Black & Whites are preparing for game time, with their first pre-season match now just nine days away.
“Now’s the time we’re starting to put our systems into place, so we’ve been doing a lot more 13 vs 13 drills which allow us to do that and see where we’re at,” he said.
“We’ve been doing a lot of testing since we’ve come back from the break. We’ve done a timed run, a bronco test and a VO2 max test.
“That gives our conditioning team some really useful data to work with, but it also gives us as players the confidence of knowing where we are at physically.”
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