Maitland junior Brock Lamb is taking a simple philosophy into season 2018 - concentrate on what he can control and leave speculation on his future to others.
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At just 21, Lamb has dealt with enormous speculation of whether he will remain at the Knights with a maturity belying his years.
“It weirds me out a little bit,” Lamb said of the level of publicity surrounding his future since the arrival of halfback Mitchell Pearse at the Knights.
“Obviously they say any publicity is good publicity, but I try to make it all good from my part in things.
“You try not to worry about the media and that stuff too much. The more I can focus on myself what I can control the better I can be.”
After making his first grade debut in 2016, Lamb played 21 games in 2017 before a knee injury sidelined him for the final two rounds.
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Surgery post season dealt with the injury and speaking after last week’s internal trial match as Maitland Sportsground, Lamb said he had never been fitter despite recovering from a virus.
“I actually felt pretty good today considering I’ve been off all week. My fitness is really good, it feels like it is a step up from last year. Obviously my strength and defence is a lot better so I’m excited.
“That’s our third hit-out and that’s probably the most solid with contact and intensity. I tried to work on my defence and it seemed to be working so I’ll keep building on that.”
Lamb said the depth in halves combinations was good for the club.
“There’s plenty of combinations, there’s Hokko (Trent Hodkinson), me, Coggs (Jack Cogger), Jack Johns, Christian Hazard, Pearce, Kayln (Ponga) and Connor (Watson), there’s so many of us linking together at different times it’s good for the club,” Lamb said.
“I was playing a bit deeper. I prefer to be on the ball a bit more, but obviously we’ve got Pearce there so I’m playing a different role every now and then. Obviously we’ve still got Connor there as well so we’ll just see what happens in the future.”
The Knights play the Parramatta Eels in a trial match at Maitland Sportsground on February 24.