Amongst the 27 man squad are five local West Australian club players who’ll bolster numbers after a host of contracted squad members are eased back into competition or given additional time to complete recovery programmes ahead of the season proper.
“It’s all about managing the squad and ensuring that come February 24 when we take on the Brumbies in Canberra to open the season we’ve got a fit and healthy group to choose from,” Graham said.
“Getting game time into the squad is important and as such we’ve prepared well and will be using the match in Darwin to put some structures together.
“We haven’t taken any unnecessary risks with players who are finalising their recovery programmes or who might have a niggle that needs a little more time to get right.
“For guys like David Pocock and Nathan Sharpe, they played a lot of rugby at the back end of last year and I felt the best thing was to get additional conditioning into them without the physicality of a game,” Graham said.