CATALANS DRAGONS are going back to the future as they prepare for Super League 2024.
Super League’s French club was once infamous for the excesses of veteran Aussie players in the beach bars of Canet Plage and coach Steve McNamara is taking his playing group back to the scene of those misdemeanours.
Pre-season preparations start this (Monday) morning for the first time ever at Canet. But the party time is over as players are put through their paces at the village’s modern sports facilities.
McNamara said: “Canet will be a nice change for us; we want to stay off the Brutus pitch at this stage of the year.
“Everyone’s aware of the bad old days. All the new staff and players were told last week of the history and heritage of this club, the things that we do really well and the dangers to be aware of.
“The beach bars got a mention because it’s important, but those days are long gone thankfully. It’s all about the sports facilities in the village now.
“The trust we have in the players now is miles away from the old days when players came back to training out of shape. The modern player keeps himself fit and strong and that gives us coaches room to create alternative training methods to build that cohesion that any successful team needs.
“You want your players to be as fit, strong and healthy as possible on the run-in to Christmas. But it’s important to involve players in things together away from training and it helps with genuine cohesion in the squad.
“We’ll decide over the next couple of weeks which young French players will come and train with us from the reserves.
“We’d like them to follow the likes of Paul Séguier, who had a breakthrough season this year, Arthur Romano, César Rougé and Arthur Mourgue, who’s hopefully going to have a big year in 2024.
“We’ll start from ground zero, stick with our DNA, which is being a difficult side to play against and beat, but we have different qualities in our halves this year. We’ve lost experience and gained speed, so the evolution of Catalans Dragons continues.”
