Inside Malaga Day 3: Tom Clough settled in to life with the Giants

​Day 3 in Malaga, and the players and staff are enjoying some well earned downtime. Although, it was a great opportunity to catch up with Tom Clough, who recently joined the Giants as Head of Performance and to see how he is settling in.

“I’m really enjoying my time at the Giants. I’m getting to know the lads and we’re all working really hard together to help push this group along. It’s been a great start for me.”

With a wealth of outstanding experience, Tom has already brought new ways of doing things to the club, and outside the box ideas to day-to-day training. He speaks about how his and the coaching staff’s ideas are bringing everybody closer together in the group.

“The ideas I’ve brought in are about people working together. We’re all working collaboratively towards putting a good programme together for everyone. We’re trying to increase the physical profiles; Speed, Strength and Fitness. The key message is, that the work we do in pre-season doesn't stop at the end of it. It’s an important month for us. We had a great block before Christmas, before the break, and we’ve started with the Malaga camp. It’s about how we maintain the habits and areas of development throughout the season.”

The lads are now well into the hard work in Malaga, and it’s most definitely not a walk on the beach. The hard yards are being put in, both on the field and in the gym. Tom also believes that camps like this one will build bonds throughout the squad, that will drag the lads through when things maybe aren’t going their way.

“There’s been no easy sessions or shortcuts. You’ve got to be tough to play Rugby League, but you’ve also got to have the respect for people that you’re working with. That comes from spending time with each other and going through hardship with each other. Camp gives you time on the pitch in the warm weather to work on what you need to, but it also an opportunity for everyone, players and staff to get to know each other. Those connections are what will get the team through the tough times.”

Speaking ahead of the upcoming Bradford friendly, from a Head of Performance point of view, Tom outlines exactly what the week leading up to the game will look like, as well as the added aspect of going into the first full contact opposed game ahead of the season.

“It’s an opportunity for a full contact game. You get an added stimulus from a physical point of view, and from a Rugby aspect, we’ll get to see what’s working, and what they need to work on. For us it will be treated as part of a tough training week. We’ll continue as normal through the week and then with the Bradford game on the Saturday will be a great test.”