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 o