It’s been a strange NRL season to emerge as a fulltime dummy half but Cronulla Sharks gun Blayke Brailey is relishing the brutality of it.
After making his debut with the club in 2019, the 21-year-old has played every game this season and if he stays injury free will have played 18-straight games in the middle plus finals.
It’s an untested scenario for NRL clubs and players who need to manage workloads more intensely than ever before to avoid injury and burn out.
“We always spoke about it as a team that the team that manages their body and recovers the best will get the rewards at the end of of the season,” Brailey said ahead of Friday’s clash with Penrith.
“There’s been a lot of injuries this year and hopefully touch wood we don’t get any.”
In his first full season of NRL it’s a lot to ask for a young dummy half who is regularly playing 80 minutes a week to a high standard.
“It’s been good to get a bit more confidence every week, I’m still not happy with some areas of my game so I’m always looking to improve each week,” he said.
“Playing those 12 games straight we haven’t really had that much of a break but I think everyone has enjoyed it.
“For me personally I’ve been feeling really good, I’m not too sore at all, I’ve been looking forward to each week and we’ve got a really good recovery process at Sharks so we have a few boxes to tick each week and that’s allowed us to be 100 per cent.”
And while a positive mentality has helped Brailey maintain his energy through the gruelling year, it has transformed Siosifa Talakai.
The 23-year-old second-rower nearly gave away the game before he was picked up by Cronulla this season on a train-and-trial deal.
He has since forced his way into the starting side for the past two weeks with consistent, solid performances.
It’s all down to mindset, he says, which he perfects by writing down three things he is grateful for in a diary each morning and night.
“It helps you not dwell on anything negative,” he said.
“It’ puts you into a positive mood where you’re not focused on anything negative or bad that went wrong in your day and you start dwelling on things that you have rather than things that you don’t have.”