The second to fourth year players’ trip to the Northern Territory will form a strong foundation for their future at the Club.

Mark Neeld was one of the coaches who joined the boys on their weeklong trip across the Northern Territory and believes that the time together has created a strong bond among the group.

“It was a fantastic experience. We were able to put in place all the things that we wanted to,” said Neeld

“There were some education sessions; there were some community and culture experiences for the boys as well as some pretty hard training.

“It was a really good experience.”

While on the trip, the boys were encouraged to run their own meetings and discuss the important lessons they had learned, any issues they had, set goals for this year and beyond as well as implement a plan on how they would like to achieve them.

Neeld, who has previously worked closely with this group in his former position as Head of Development, was encouraged by what he saw and is confident that – in time, this group will be able to turn this experience into something special.

“Things like that, when you’re taking groups of players away, we don’t want it to just be a one off experience in what they went through and what they saw up in Darwin and on the Tiwi Islands to stay there,” said Neeld

“Some of the meetings we had, they’re great conversations, and they’ve set goals. What we now want them to do is to put all those things into action and do what they say they’re going to do.”

The group returned earlier this week and was back out on the training track, preparing for the return of the entire playing group next Monday.