North Queensland Cowboys player Michael Morgan says pre-season has at times been tough but he’s stoked for the start of the season.

Speaking to Peter Psaltis and Johnathan Thurston on Wide World of Sports, he said it was a strong team ahead of the clash with the Panthers on Saturday night.

“I am excited for it, I am really stoked the season has taken off as normal so fingers crossed it stays that way… feels like a long time since I have played a proper game of footy.”

With head coach Todd Hayten at the helm, he said there’s been some changes.

“It’s been really good, it’s a big change to what we have had in the past, so look the training schedule has been different, the content has been different the way we want to play has been different, it’s been a challenge at times, it’s been a tough pre-season.

“But from the start, as soon as Todd got there, the boys were very open minded to change and ready for it.

“It doesn’t count for too much now until we start playing and that’s when we start showing whether we’ve made a change or not.”

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