WITH the end-of-year internationals, amateur tours and the annual BARLA Three Counties Series having only just concluded, it may almost seem as if the 2018 rugby league season has only finished just as the 2019 one is about to get under way.

It is, though, over seven weeks since Barrow Raiders last picked up a ball in anger away Featherstone Rovers in their final game of the Betfred Championship game.

Indeed, as players old and new filed through the gates at Craven Park on a crisp late autumn morning last Saturday to begin preparation for the club’s second season back in the division, they were a week later than normal.

The injuries which ravaged the squad throughout 2018 meant the Raiders players were given some extra time to recuperate before getting pre-season training under way.

But once they were in, it was a case of hitting the ground running, and head coach Paul Crarey and his staff have no intention of easing back into things.

“We’ve come in a week later than last year because we had a tough year, so we’ve given them an extra week – but we’ll be going hard,” said Crarey.

“Last year (in pre-season) was brutal on the sandhills (at Roanhead) and Martin Aspinwall said he hadn’t trained as hard since he was at Wigan.

“We measure what we do on the feedback from the senior players, so it was good and we started the season really, really well.”

Among those there for the first blow-out of pre-season were new signings Gareth Hock, Deon Cross, Jake Spedding and Tee Ritson, along with Furness Raiders graduate Jake Carter plus under-19s stand-outs Charlie Emslie and Adam Ford.

Papua New Guinean trio Stargroth Amean, Wartovo Purara Jr and Willie Minoga are due to link up with the Raiders in the coming weeks too, and Crarey is delighted with the strength in depth he has at his disposal going into the 2019 Championship.

“We’ve got a strong enough squad where we can rest players, we’re not going to play players who are injured, and we can leave players out just to give them a rest and benefit the squad, and it won’t make a dint in us in terms of quality,” said Crarey.

“We’re really pleased with the recruitment and it’s probably the best it’s been since I’ve been here and it needs to be because lads who aren’t here wanted to be here.”

Perhaps the biggest fillip for Crarey has been the interest players have shown in wanting to sign for Barrow.

And as he watched his new recruits get an understanding of the team’s systems on Saturday, the only way Crarey was looking was up.

“It’s really encouraging signs that we’re heading there and we’re in the Championship to stay, and that’s the pleasing thing,” said Crarey. “We want to try to be the best part-time team in the competition.”