Having spent almost his entire Super League career under Tony Smith with The Wire, 2017 player of the year Ryan Atkins reveals in his own words how things have changed in the past few months under new head coach Steve Price

IT has been a lot different, to be honest.

We’re talking about two men with totally different philosophies.

Everybody knows my relationship with Tony Smith – he pretty much made my career and we’re still good friends now.

He would say himself that it was the right time to leave.

So Pricey has come in and he’s got the whip out, making us work hard.

He’s wanted to know how far he can push us with being the new coach.

He’ll continue to do that.

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Some things have been similar, like the togetherness of the group.

But Steve Price has basically come in and said we’re too soft.

So he’s toughening us up.

It could be seen with the army camp – there was no sunshine in Tenerife for us this year.

It was a couple of days away in an army camp, no phones, no food. It was the toughest thing I’ve ever done.

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The intensity has gone up as well.

And the longer days…don’t remind me about those.

The days have been longer for us but Steve, assistant coaches Andrew Henderson and Lee Briers as well as conditioner Jon Clarke have worked them well.

A lot of the stuff we have been doing in training has been different.

I would never have thought you could get any more drills than the ones I’ve already done in my career but they have come up with them, along with alternative exercises in the gym and conditioning sessions.

We’ve really been put through our paces.

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Steve’s views on defence and attack are totally different to Tony’s, so fans might see some familiar faces on the field but the way we attack and defend will be different.

The squad he has put together with the help of the board of directors is perfect for the way he wants us to play.

It is going to take a bit of getting used to, but that’s what we have had pre-season and friendlies for.

Hopefully come the first game we’ll be flying, with everyone on the same page.

For someone like me, having been a professional for a long time, it’s making me change everything about how I defend and attack.

It’s a new challenge and it works.

I was a bit sceptical to start with, trying to change to something that I’ve never done in my career because I’ve never previously defended how we’ll be defending out wide.

But it’s good, I’m enjoying it, I’ve bought into it and I’ve got the hang of it which is the main thing.

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There’s always a bedding-in period.

Under fatigue in matches you always resort to the easier option, I’d say, and you rely on instinct.

We’ve been doing this defence and attack from day one of pre-season.

I’m pretty confident in saying that it’s instilled in us now and that’s our DNA.

There’s no better time to try it than against the champions.

I’d say the average fan will be able to see the differences on the field.

Don’t get me wrong, we’re not rewriting the book on defence in rugby league for example.

There are teams in the league who do defend similar to how we will be, so it’s nothing that hasn’t been seen before.

It is just new to us in terms of how we have defended previously.

And it’s me being an old man, it’s taken me a while to get my head around it.

The younger lads bought into the changes straightaway and I guess it was easier for them because they’ve not had something instilled in them for years.

It’s proven to work.

Everybody’s been receptive to it and everybody’s wanting to impress, everybody’s chomping at the bit to show Steve they’re ready for a starting 13 or 17 jersey.

It’s been a lot more intense than it has ever been.

So this year certainly does feel different already. I can tell the lads are mentally and physically in different places.

Also, a lot of players have now experienced Super League whereas when we’ve had a bigger squad a lot of lads hadn’t played in Super League so you could kind of guess who would be playing, but now there’s players who can play multiple positions and have all played to a great level.

So it’s a lot tougher to get a starting shirt.

There may be other things that change as the season develops because it’s only been a short time under Steve so far.

But now is the time to shine and really give Steve some headaches with selection.