A little over five months after the Manly Marlins 2017 Shute Shield campaign came to an end with two straight finals losses, head coach Billy Melrose asked his players to turn up to Manly Oval at 3am last Saturday morning.

Melrose had invited an SAS instructor to take his squad through a gruelling seven hour endurance session in and around Manly, aiming to make his squad mentally and physically stronger ahead of their 2018 campaign.

“It was quite a challenge for everyone, we clocked up quite a few kilometres and in between we were always working, with lots of team challenges that we needed to do together,” Manly captain Adrian Hall told Rugby News.

“I think it pushed everyone outside of their comfort zone so it was good to do something like that together at this point of the year.”

While some of their other mates were probably still stumbling down the Corso, the Manly players were asked to line up in two lines, with a water bottle in one hand and a backpack in the other.

“To start we needed to walk off Manly Oval in two straight lines without talking and that alone took us eight or nine attempts, so we knew from there we were in for a long day,” Hall continued.

For the next seven hours, the group were asked to run, crawl, swim, climb and sprint around Manly, all while carrying a “10-15kg sandbag.”

If one player made a mistake, or dropped their sandbag even just for a second, the entire group was punished and Hall said his push up count ended up well into triple figures.

“For probably three quarters of it, we weren’t allowed to talk and he kept talking to us about how we were feeling and what we were thinking about, then he taught us how to change those thoughts to stay positive.”

To finish, the group had to carry a number of their teammates and their sandbags back towards Manly Oval, then pull a truck attached to a gym rope up a hill.

All in a days work for a side looking to win their first premiership in 21 long years.

“He spoke a lot about one percenters and always being accountable for your actions. Whenever we made a little mistake or didn’t follow instructions perfectly, we were punished as a group and that’s exactly the same in a rugby game,” Hall said.

“All those small mistakes or lapses in concentration throughout the year add up and that is the difference at the end of the season.”

Manly led the competition for the majority of the 2017 season but after wrapping up the minor premiership with two matches remaining in the regular season, things began to unravel.

“I think maybe we changed a little too much heading into the finals, particularly that semi final. There were a few things that we were doing really well for most of the year and we probably didn’t stick to that at the back end of the season,” Hall said.

“As I said before, a lot of little things added up towards the end of the season. We had some bad luck with injuries but I think we need to be more accountable as a group for the entire season if we want to get better results.”

Saturday’s seven hour SAS session was the start of that according to Hall, who said he now has a newfound respect for those in the armed service.

“They do those sorts of exercises for 21 days straight. We only did it for seven hours so it opens your eyes to just how incredible those guys are. For us, it was seven hours of pain and we were able to get through it as a group and hopefully that helps us throughout the year.”

After missing the playoffs in 2016, the Marlins improved significantly under Melrose’s guidance last year and Hall said he was hopeful that would continue this season.

“We’ve added a few new guys to the squad, but the majority of us know what to expect with Billy, what he likes in attack and in defence. He likes guys with a good work ethic and he expects a lot from each individual and hopefully that will continue to have an effect this year,” he said.

“We’re starting to work on a few things that we want to change from last year then we head into a camp after our first preseason game so I think that’ll help us get a bit more clarity as a group.”

While Saturday’s session wasn’t easy, Hall said the pain was nothing compared to watching arch rivals Warringah go on and win last year’s premiership, a competition many on the northern beaches considered Manly’s to lose.

“I know I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about what I could have done better at the back end of the season and none of the boys are happy with how things ended last season,” he said.

“You hear a lot from people on the outside over the summer months about where and how we went wrong and it hurts to hear it, so I don’t think there will be any shortage of motivation from our guys.”

Photo: Adam MacDonald