‘Pack your work boots’: Storm star’s ominous pre-season warning to Tigers recruit
Storm hooker Harry Grant has urged new teammate Stefano Utoikamanu to “pack your work boots” ahead of his two-week intensive work program when he lands in Melbourne.
On August 2 it was confirmed the hulking prop would depart the Tigers to join Craig Bellamy and the Storm, signing a three-year deal which begins ahead of the 2025 season.
While Utoikamanu was one of the hottest free agents of the season, the talented forward is set to undergo the club’s ‘New Recruit Work Program’ upon arrival.
Introduced by Bellamy in 2003 when he took over as the Storm’s head coach, the program sees the club’s signings complete labour-intensive work alongside their pre-season training.
Every player, regardless of their status in the game, completes the two 40-hour working weeks, and Grant reflected on his time in the program on SEN.
“He’ll be coming and doing gym at five, six o’clock in the morning then going to do an eight-hour day at work, then come back in and train in the afternoon,” Grant said.
“Pack your work boots Stef… I had to do it, I had Cooper Johns with me, he was ordinary, I carried him through that work program.
“Everyone has to go through it, Tariq Sims last season he came down and went through it…
“Obviously the timing and all that works out, if you’re playing representative football and you start pre-season late, you might not do it.
“But most of the time it sort of lines up and the new players at the club go and do work programs.”
The work program won’t be the only tough slog Utoikamanu will have to endure with another Tigers recruit, Shawn Blore, coming to a shock realisation and collapsing on his first day at the club.
During the Storm’s 2024 pre-season, the promising talent was left gasping for air and was looking “confused” according to teammate Nick Meaney.
“So even if you’ve heard all the stories,” Meaney said to foxsports.com.au.
“There’s still nothing that prepares you for the experience.”
After the first day of the club’s pre-season camp in Geelong, Blore told his new teammates he’d never gone though a tougher day of fitness and torture.
“Get used to it” a teammate said to the player who is now considered one of the buys of the season, cementing a spot on the left edge for the Storm.