He played 160 minutes of top-flight rugby league in the space of five days but Ryan Hoffman knows the next seven are only going to get tougher.
Following on from an 80-minute effort for NSW in their 11-10 loss to Queensland in the opening game of the Harvey Norman State of Origin series on Wednesday night, Hoffman was required to play every second of the Warriors' 24-20 win over Newcastle on Sunday afternoon.
It was a huge effort from the former Storm enforcer, who ran for 108 metres and made 32 tackles for the Blues before clocking up 93 metres and 22 tackles back in the Warriors' jersey in Auckland.
"Tired and a bit sore," was the 13-season veteran's summary when asked how he was feeling after the victory over the Knights.
"But it's what you do; you have got a responsibility to your club to back up.
"They are the blokes who help you get those rep jumpers in the first place so you have a responsibility to them to make sure you get there and back up.
"Today I needed to be out there for 80 and I was more than happy to do so.
"Your teammates watched the game but to be honest, they don’t care what happened on Wednesday night, they need you to turn up and do your job on Sunday."
With a trip to Perth next week - where the defending premiers South Sydney await on Saturday night - Hoffman's rest and recovery period will be significantly reduced with the club flying out of Auckland on Wednesday.
Measuring over 5000kms in distance, and taking more than seven hours to travel, The Warriors' trek to nib Stadium is the longest in the Telstra Premiership.
But Hoffman refused to let the prospect of jetlag worry him.
"The club will look after me, I'll have a few days off then get ready for the trip over to Perth," he said.
"It's not something I haven’t done before, I have backed up from Origin games plenty of times before and I know what I have to do to get my body right.
"It [the Rabbitohs game] is another big challenge and we just need to make sure our performances are up to standard."
The 31-year-old also took time to reflect on the Warriors' sixth win of the year, which ensured they remain in the competition's top eight heading into the official halfway point of the season.
"We are putting ourselves in a good position, we would like to finish those wins a lot better, especially tonight we should have finished a hell of a lot better than what we did," Hoffman said.
"But two points is two points and you never get disappointed with winning football games.
"I think we had it under control but we need to finish these wins a lot cleaner… as a team and for us to go forward we need to be a bit cleaner.
"I think we are the ugliest team at the moment with the way we have had our wins, but they are wins, two points, and come the end of the season we won't be looking at how we got those two points, just that we got them."
