SALFORD RED DEVILS are a Super League club on the rise.
Not only did the club make it to the semi-final play-offs in 2022, Paul Rowley has been able to hand long-term contracts to some of his best players including Brodie Croft, Tim Lafai and Andy Ackers.
This is a Salford building for the future, and, although their finances may not be able to match the spending power of Super League rivals, the Red Devils are doing all they can to get ahead of the game in other aspects – especially when it comes to preventing injury.
“We as a club and a staff, we organise and do absolutely everything we can,” Rowley said. “We get a blood testing company to come in quarterly and see where we are blood wise and see what we are lacking and maybe supplement diets.
“I don’t believe any other club does that. We all have our players brain scanned at Salford hospital so we are pretty good on our player health. In terms of activities we are doing, we are playing rugby and I’m not sure what else we can do.
“Its about being proactive and getting in front of the game. If they are low in iron we get ahead of the game to try and prevent illness or injury or anything lacking.”
With Salford often unable to have 13 vs 13 game-related scenarios in training due to the rise in injuries, Rowley revealed the club has to be imaginative.
“We have variation within our scenarios, we like to practice chaos with varying degrees of numbers and size of pitches. That’s down to choosing carefully what we decide to practice.
“Ultimately your combinations, shapes and how you will play and then defend as a 13 when you have no one really challenging you, its hard to practice try-line defence.
“You learn from playing games and reviewing them and they can sometimes be harsh viewing.”
