It was already established that new coach Anthony Seibold’s training session at the Broncos were upbeat but it was the deafening beat of the techno music blaring out of a giant stereo system that had everyone dancing at Brisbane training on Thursday.
A kilometre away at Suncorp Stadium the stage was being set for a Bon Jovi concert but the playlist at Red Hill was far different to anything the kings of 1980s anthem rock were rehearsing.
Veteran forward Alex Glenn was in a footloose and fancy free mood and was heard to quip "this is right up my alley" as the volume was turned up to the max and his fellow players quickened their step for the duration of another intense session.
Front-rower Matthew Lodge, who has re-signed for two years, grinned and said the tunes were a far cry from the country music former coach Wayne Bennett enjoyed.
Lodge said South Sydney had employed the same methods last season under Seibold.
"The trainer Paul Devlin is a fan of that and I am happy to run with it. Most people put a set of headphones on and run with them so it is like having a giant set of headphones for everyone," Lodge said.
"It gets the boys going with a bit of energy. We were pushing it out to the limit.
Matt Lodge re-signs with Broncos
"That is my style of music. Darius Boyd likes a bit of hard and fast [techno]. Just as long as we are not running to anything slow."
Lodge was not surprised at some of the innovations brought in by Seibold after replacing Bennett.
"It is a lot different. I have worked with Seibs before. He was my coach down in Melbourne so it is familiar for me," he said.
"He has definitely changed the way we do things around here. The tempo is up…and hopefully we can get some benefit from that."
Lodge confirmed the side was doing extra ball work pre-Christmas under Seibold than in the past, which he welcomed as a ball-playing front-rower.
"I am a massive fan of that. I am not here to be a cross-country runner or a track athlete. I am a big fan of getting the ball in our hands and working on skills but I understand coaches that don’t want to do it as well because you need to put the work in," he said.
"We are training above game speed, running and getting enough of both. We have a long way to go with our skills. We have got a young team and everyone needs to improve. If we had a lot of older people we wouldn’t have to do as much ball skills."