IT may be the middle of summer with the temperature hovering about the 40-degree mark but the Western Rams' first training run of the season will be a "fair dinkum" hit-out.
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In order to be a force at the Country Championship level, coach Darren Jackson has organised a regimented pre-season program, beginning at Caltex Park on Saturday.
Last month Jackson named an extended squad of 99 players made up from Group 11, Group 10, the Castlereagh League and the Barwon Darling League while a 77-man Western under-21 squad was also announced.
Both squads will take part in their first session together on Saturday and senior squad manager Gavin Board says it will be a test for all involved.
"It will be full training and then a contact game so it's going to be fair dinkum, not just a run around," he said.
"We want to see where we're at."
The session is not compulsory and Board says he is hopeful 50 players from each squad will be in attendance.
Dubbo CYMS are the most well represented club in the senior train-on squad with nine players named while Macquarie and Westside each have two.
While the main goal is a successful 2016 Country Championships campaign, the sides are also preparing for clashes with Penrith Panthers teams at Pepper Stadium in February.
The under-21s will take on the Panthers' under-20s side while the seniors will meet the Penrith NSW Cup squad.
Dubbo's Board, taking on a manager's role for the first time, stated he and the coaches were already looking forward to the season ahead and a big part of Saturday was to get the players starting to think about 2016 as well.
"We want the level of enthusiasm from a coaching and administration point of view to flow through to the players," he said.
"We want blokes to be prepared but it's also about bonding and getting to know each other."
The Rams suffered a disappointing loss to the Greater Northern Tigers in the first round of the Country Championships last season.
A lack of preparation has always been a major reason for Western sides failing to dominate at the higher level with this new training program designed to alleviate those struggles.
"We've fallen short of that level every time and teams like Illawarra, we want to be confident of challenging them and that's what Darren wants to instill in the players," Board said.
Jackson gained a coaching accreditation recently and also spent time with NSW State of Origin assistant coach Matt Parish and Board said he was keen to start passing on what he had learned.
Saturday's session at Caltex Park begins at 3pm.
