Beau worries for Fermor as Campbell eyes Round 1 return

Beau Fermor, whose teammate Jayden Campbell is racing against time to be fit for Round 1 next year, would have plenty of patience counsel for Campbell after rupturing his ACL a week before the 2023 season opening, which forced him to miss the entire campaign.

Following a successful procedure to realign his displaced patella in Round 25, Campbell must still wait until next month for his surgeon’s clearance to resume running.

Nevertheless, both players were excited to resume preseason workouts in the hopes of asserting their claims to starting in their favored spots this season against new coach Des Hasler.

After months of recuperation, Fermor declared he would “be sweet for Round 1”. Prior to his injury, Fermor was in the best form of his career and was hoping to push for a spot in Queensland’s Origin squad. However, he will have to prove himself once more to get a starting spot among the talented forwards of the Titans.

While he still needs to work his way into the full rigours of training, Fermor said he was looking forward to seeing what an infamous Hasler pre-season would be like and had full expectations of “being flogged”.

“Obviously, I can’t go from zero to 100 straight into pre-season, I’ve got a few weeks to build up to the full ‘in’ with the team, but a couple of weeks before Christmas, I’ll be in there with them, just like one of the boys,” Fermor said.

“New coach means new ways of thinking, new ways of training, so it’s a bit of an unknown going into the pre-season. I think it’s got everyone a bit on edge and wondering what’s going to happen so it’s exciting.

“I think that’s what we need as a team; we’ve got the squad here that can go deep into the finals and really challenge for a premiership and I think (pre-season is) the time that we need to be pushed (to) make sure that we’re winning more games than we’re losing.”

As he begins his fourth season in the NRL, Campbell is among the more seasoned players that arrived early for Titans training. He expressed his intention to play fullback for the team in 2024 without holding back after having a strong season as a utility in the halves and at dummy half in 2023.

Campbell remarked, “We have a new coach, so I just have to come to practice and try to prove to the coach that I would love to play fullback.”

“I would want to try and take that spot down because I feel like it’s my greatest position and where I play my best.

“Growing up, fullback was my main position, so I think just over time, I learnt a lot more and I have gotten used to it.