Melbourne have stepped up their preparations for the NRL preliminary final clash with the Sydney Roosters by shifting to AFL club Collingwood’s oval training ground.
The Storm marked out a rugby league field, complete with rugby league posts and advertising boards, in an attempt to mimic Saturday night’s finals venue, the SCG.
Melbourne players outside the main squad also donned the Roosters colours in opposed drills.
Skipper Cameron Smith said it was about familiarising his team with playing within an oval ground and they would spend the week training there.
“We’ve done it once before this year, against the Roosters at Adelaide Oval,” he said.
“Since the Pies are now finished their season we had the opportunity to use that ground to try to simulate playing on our rectangle field inside an oval which we will be doing on Saturday.
“It can be a bit disorientating and you can get a bit lost when you’re out in the middle of our field, and then there’s so much room outside.
“Particularly for the kickers, you can lose the sidelines a little bit.”
Smith said all players were fit and available for the match, which was a bonus ahead of the grand final rematch.
“I don’t think we had any issues coming out of the game so if we can take the same 17 as what we had against Parramatta that would be a huge bonus for us,” Smith said.