'It's absolutely crazy': Mikolaj Oledzki says Leeds Rhinos in 'a really good space' as Super League fixture pile-up looms

Friday’s visit of Warrington Wolves is the first of four games in 16 days to complete Rhinos’ league campaign.

They back up at home to Huddersfield Giants next Wednesday, visit Catalans Dragons the following Monday and host Castleford Tigers five days later.

All top-flight clubs are facing similar congestion - having played three games in a week over Easter - and with injuries and suspensions taking their toll, there are concerns some coaches could struggle to raise a team.

“I am quite fortunate to have been involved in every game and, touch wood, there’s a few more coming up,” Oledzki said.

But he admitted so many matches in such a short space of time could mean the quality drops across the board, when the leading teams are preparing for their most important games of the year.

He warned: “The schedule is a bit crazy.

“At the back end of the season you want the teams to be firing on all cylinders and everyone to be fresh, to make the play-offs the most exciting and biggest spectacle of the season.

“To have basically an ‘Easter period’ before the play-offs is absolutely crazy, but it is just one of those things.

“As players we have to roll our sleeves up and make the most of it.

“There’s a good amount of points up for grabs so you can think of it that way, as a good opportunity.”

Oledzki played 70 of the 80 minutes in last week’s 28-20 win at Hull KR, his only rest coming via a spell in the sin-bin after he was penalised for interference.

The long minutes weren’t necessarily the plan, but Leeds lost stand-off Cameron Smith and Bodene Thompson, who had started at prop, to injury in the opening quarter and centre Harry Newman midway through the second half, reducing them to just 14 available players.

Though Rovers had similar problems, Oledzki reckons the way Leeds battled back from 10-0 and 14-4 behind was credit to their resilience and determination.

“Cam and Bo went off with pretty bad injuries so it was one of those games where we had to grind it out and get through it,” Oledzki said.

“That’s what we did in the middle.

“It was a full team performance, Zane [Tetevano] had to go in the back-row so he was a bit out of position and I thought he did an amazing job.

“We are all really connected as a team and I thought we handled it really well.

“We knew what we had to do; we knew it was going to be a tough ask, especially going down to 15 players, but I feel like over the last few weeks we’ve built a really resilient, determined mindset when it comes to games.”

Earlier in the season Rhinos tended to let their heads drop when things went against them, but Oledzki insisted: “We conceded some tries at the start, but we weren’t shell shocked, we didn’t panic.

“We knew we had points in us.

“Two of the tries they scored were off great kicks, so our defence wasn’t that bad.

“It was pretty good, pretty controlled.

“Our confidence has gone up and we are going into games backing ourselves.

“That’s no coincidence, we have been building over the last few weeks, in training and on the field.

“We’ve not had easy games, some of them have been tough and close, but I feel like we have used them as building blocks.

“The tougher the game, the more you take out of it and the more resilient it makes you.

“I think as a team we are in a really good space now and we are going in the right direction as well, to get better.”

Four of the five players who were suspended last week are now available and - with some long-term casualties nearing fitness - Oledzki reckons coach Rohan Smith has some tough decisions to make.

He said: “The lads who have been playing have done a great job.

“I guess for a coach, that’s a good headache to have.

“It will be great to have these lads back, but you have to give credit to the lads who have been filling in, in what might not be their natural position.

“Jarrod [O’Connor] has been playing at nine and doing an amazing job.

“Rohan has got a nice headache with team selection, now lads are coming back.”