He's a long way from the weight listed in his profile on the Broncos' website but giant winger Daniel Vidot is determined to slim down even further in order to prolong his career in the outside backs.
Recruited from the Dragons in the off-season to bolster Brisbane's stocks of outside backs, Vidot was overlooked for the 16-man squad to contest the Auckland Nines in February but will play his eighth straight game as a Bronco against South Sydney on Friday night.
A player blessed with equal measures of size and speed, letting the Samoan international loose on Auckland's Eden Park would have appeared the obvious introduction to life at his new club but Vidot knew that being left behind was a not-too-blunt message from coach Anthony Griffin.
Nothing was said between player and coach but Vidot knew that his omission had to be a catalyst to work even harder and he concedes that despite a strong start to the 2014 season, the hard work is set to continue.
Having tipped the scales at 115 kilograms midway through 2013, Vidot told NRL.com that he is now weighing in at 112kg, still a far cry from the 105kg that he is listed at on the website and a couple of kilograms heavier than he would like himself.
"I'd probably be happier to lose a bit more weight, a few more kilos I reckon, just to get my speed back up, which would be good. That's something I'm working on at the moment," Vidot said.
The 24-year-old conceded that the Auckland Nines omission did shock him into action but was pleased to be able to work his way back into the starting 13 for Round 1, a spot he has maintained through the opening two months of the competition.
"It was a bit like that but you can't sit in a corner and sulk," Vidot said of the disappointment of being left out.
"You've just got to take it personally and try harder next week.
"There wasn't really any talk, just take it how it is. I don't know, maybe a fitness thing... I got a lot fitter here from the pre-season.
"It's something I took on board and I started training harder and I'm just fortunate I got the shot in the side for Round 1 and want to keep it consistent, week in, week out."
Dragons coach Steve Price experimented with using Vidot in the back row at various stages last season and although Vidot said he would embrace any such move at Brisbane, he is for now happy to let the Broncos pack continue to do their thing.
With 117 points conceded the Broncos defence is currently ranked the seventh-best in the competition but Vidot believes his side's men in the middle are No.1 for fitness at the back-end of games.
"It's good to be in the line when you're looking at the forwards and you kind of know that they're going to be there because the fitness of this pack is unreal," he said.
"I don't think they're getting enough credit to be honest. Their line speed I think is the best in the NRL so they get forward and help us backs out a lot. Something I like doing is helping out the forwards so if we help out each other and work as a team, we can't go wrong when we're doing that.
"Going into games, I feel as though we've still got the most energy towards the end of the game which is something that we're happy about at the moment. We just want to keep that up and we've got a massive game this week against the Rabbitohs.
"They're a top side so we've got to watch their big guns and hopefully we can take it to them."
In two games at Suncorp Stadium for the Dragons in the past two years, Vidot has played in front of crowds of 38,012 and 31,199 and is jumping out of his skin at the prospect of playing in front of a packed house in the colours of the home team.
"It was always massive when we came up to 'Brissy' but playing for the other side now is different," Vidot said of his previous visits.
"I love the fans up here. They're very passionate about the Broncs, and very positive people, that's what I've found."
