Rugby League Coaching Manuals

By Robert Dillon - Scott Dureau feels confident he has given himself every chance. As the plucky Newcastle halfback prepares for a season that may prove to be the crossroads in his career, he is counting on his hard yards over the summer months to help take his game to a new level.

"I'm fitter than ever. I've got my best testing results in that area. It's the same with my strength. I haven't put on a lot of weight, but my lifting is a lot better than what it was and I feel a lot stronger in my body.

"All the body weight things I'm a lot better at. I'm starting to fill out, I guess, so that's given me a bit of confidence to know that physically I'm in a lot better shape," he said.

Having played 31 NRL games since his debut in 2007, Dureau is off contract at season's end and under pressure to prove he deserves to be Jarrod Mullen's regular scrumbase partner.

His main rival for that role is five-eighth Ben Rogers, who is also unsigned beyond this season.

Knights coach Rick Stone has made it obvious he wants to settle on a halfback pairing this season, so the bantamweight bout between Dureau and Rogers is looming as a winner-takes-all affair.

Dureau appears to have the inside running, although he is taking nothing for granted.

While the 23-year-old has enjoyed an incident-free pre-season, Rogers's progress has been interrupted by several frustrating injuries.

The former Penrith, South Sydney and St George Illawarra pivot spent the early weeks of the pre-season on crutches after surgery on both his ankle and foot.

Now a minor knee problem is set to hinder him for the next couple of weeks.

In addition, Rogers is under suspension for Newcastle's opening trial game, against Melbourne at Charlestown on February 21, which will ensure Dureau gets first crack at stating his case.

The only game time Rogers is likely to receive in the trials is the February 28 hit-out against Penrith at Port Macquarie.

"You never like to see one of your mates hurt, and I think he's only going to be out for two weeks, but that's not something I'm concerned about," Dureau said. "I'm just worried about myself this year.

"I just want to get myself in the best possible shape for the season and do my best for the team."

Dureau had no doubt about which aspects of his game he needed to improve to become Newcastle's regular first receiver.

"I think the physical areas," Dureau said.

"Just running the ball and that one-on-one defence, being able to hold my gloves up in the line, as Stoney says, and not let anyone come through me.

"I get targeted a lot, as a little bloke, and one area I have to work on this year is being able to make 20 tackles a game and still being fit enough to be going as good in the last minute as I am in the first minute.

"It's a major goal to play the full 80 minutes and hopefully not to get too tired."

Stone said he was "liking what he was seeing" from Dureau but it was still premature to suggest he had sewn up the No.7 jersey.

"We're still confident Ben Rogers will be right for that final trial, and that's what we're working towards," Stone said. "We'll give him and Scotty and Mullo some time in that trial and make a decision after that."

Stone expects to pick mainly fringe first-graders in Saturday night's opening trial match against the Newcastle Rugby League representative team at Tomaree.