Konrad Hurrell - I'll play anywhere for Leeds Rhinos

Hurrell and Liam Sutcliffe were Rhinos’ centres at the end of last season, but competition for places will increase when Betfred Super League young player of the year Harry Newman returns from a broken leg next year.

At 1.83 metres (6ft) and 110kg (17.3st), fans’ favourite Hurrell has the physical attributes to switch into the pack and that could be a long-term option if coach Richard Agar sticks with Sutcliffe in the three-quarters.

“Whatever position they want me to play in, I will put my hand up,” Hurrell insisted.

“Young Harry and Liam Sutty have been playing pretty good this year and if they take that spot and it’s where I am meant to be, in the middle, I don’t mind, as long as I am part of the team

“Whatever position they give me I will just be grateful I am part of the team and get to play.”

Rhinos won the Coral Challenge Cup last season and finished fifth in Super League, climbing three places from the previous campaign.

Hurrell reflected: “It has been a weird year, it started really good, then Covid came in.

“One of the highlights of the year was lifting that trophy and just being around the boys.

“It felt like a different team this year than last year; I am not saying it in a bad way about last year, I still think we were rebuilding last year, but this year has been great.

“It looks like we are going in the right direction and hopefully we start again like we did last season, lifting a trophy and hopefully aiming for the Super League trophy next year. Hopefully we will bring the same mentality.”

Hurrell stressed: “It is a new team this year from last year, people like Galey [captain Luke Gale] have come in and they’ve not been used to playing with each other.

“To play how we did this year, it felt like we had been playing together for a while.

“We have got to bring that into next year. We are pretty much used to everyone now and I reckon we will feel a lot more comfortable playing with each other next year, but we will still need hard training in pre-season to get into it.”

The Tongan international, who joined Rhinos ahead of the 2019 campaign from Gold Coast Titans, has remained in Leeds since the season ended a month ago.

“There was no chance of getting home so I’ve just been chilling out in the cold, enjoying this winter,” he said.

“It was a tough time to try and get home, because of all the quarantine. I’d pretty much have to quarantine wherever I go, even if it was just a stop over, so there was no point going home.”

Hurrell added: “There’s still a lot of the boys hanging about and my partner - Bec Bates - has been amazing.

“She couldn’t go home either, because of the quarantine. If you go home for three weeks you can only enjoy one because you’ve got to be by yourself in a hotel for two weeks.

“We’ve got some friends here too and they have kept me busy, I’ve just been going round to their places and hanging out with them.

“We’ve just put our heads down and tried to enjoy ourselves here and hopefully next year we’ll be able to [visit home].”

Pre-season begins on Monday, January 4, but Hurrell - along with others in the squad - has already been training at Kirkstall on a voluntary basis.

“The last two weeks I have been going in,” he said. “That’s part of keeping busy, just hanging with the boys, going and doing a bit of training rather than sitting at home eating chocolate and Kit Kats.

“It is good to get out of the house and do a bit of work with the boys.”

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