By LIZ MOORE

Brothers hooker Matthew Faessler will start the delayed season eight kilograms heavier than when the first games of 2020 were played.

Packing on the extra muscle in his home gym these past months, the 21-year-old is planning to make a bigger mark on the field for Brothers this season.

“I went into Covid at 104 kilos, and I came out of Covid at 112,” Faessler said.

“All the feedback I’ve been getting is that if I want to be a good hooker at the level I want to be playing, I need to be putting on a bit more size.

“I was lucky enough that I’ve got a bit of a gym in my garage, so I was able to put in a fair bit of work in terms of my physical development. Put on a bit of weight during Covid so I can be a bit more effective around the field.”

Faessler plans to use his extra weight in collision as well as around the field.

“Being a bit bigger and stronger will hopefully enable me to have more dominance in contact, in attack and defence, and hopefully that helps us out a bit, and puts me in a bit of a better position to hopefully play rep footy down the track.”

Faessler played Australian Schoolboys, Reds under-20s in his first year out of Toowoomba Grammar School, and Australian Under 20s in 2018. And while he’s keen for more, his focus remains on Brothers.

“My most important thing is just performing well for Brothers and learning as much as I can. Just see where it goes really,” he said.

The solid club man said his team is looking good, comparable to where they were in their strong 2019 season.

“We’re working hard. I’d say we’d be on par at the stage we were at to last year with a very similar team, similar coaching staff. Hopefully we can put in a performance similar to last year, but hopefully take away the big one at the end of it.”

Faessler has been with Brothers since he left school in 2016, playing Premier grade since 2018, and couldn’t be happier with the club.

“I love Brothers. It’s an awesome environment, and a really good mixture of youth and age in the playing group. So a lot of older guys who have been around the traps for a while, and a lot of really young talented players.

“It’s a good mix of experience. There are a lot of guys to learn off and all those players are really keen on passing on knowledge. First-graders will come down and help do set-piece work before training with Colts and that kind of stuff.”

IMAGE: BRENDAN HERTEL / QRU MEDIA UNIT