A reduction in the number of interchanges means NRL forwards have had to shed kilos in a hurry, writes Brad Walter.
MARK RIDDELL hasn't had a drink since New Year's Eve...
With each team able to make only 10 replacements during a game instead of 12, players such as Riddell are expected to endure longer stints on the field.....
Gone are the double chin and spare tyre that earned Riddell, Parramatta's first-choice hooker, the nickname "Piggy"....
Riddell, who once famously told Dragons coaching director Laurie Daley and a dietitian that he drank about 40 schooners a week and then when they thanked him for his honesty added that he hadn't mentioned the bourbon and cokes, has dropped 8kg after abstaining from alcohol for the longest period of his adult life.
Still harbouring the old-fashioned belief that a player's time off at the end of the season is exactly that and should therefore not involve fitness work or the restrictions on eating and drinking they have to endure while playing, Riddell usually has to start from scratch when he returns to training and this time wasn't much different.
"I certainly wouldn't say he was in great shape," Eels coach Michael Hagan said. "But when the changes to the interchange rule were first mooted we spoke about the need for Piggy to spend more time on the field and he's certainly taken that on board and made some changes to what he was doing. I think he'd had any number of people make suggestions to him in the past about what he needed to do but at the end of the day it's up to him."
Under the new rule, Hagan estimated that props would still be rotated as often but hookers and back-rowers would now have to play for significantly longer periods.
