AFTER enduring the toughest period of his rugby league career thus far in 2015, Bathurst talent Doug Hewitt is determined to make his presence felt this season for Queensland Cup outfit the Tweed Heads Seagulls.
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A former Bathurst Panther who won a Toyota Cup premiership in 2013 for Penrith, Hewitt did not play a single game last year.
Instead of trying to impress for the Seagulls, who are a feeder club for NRL club the Gold Coast Titans, Hewitt went under the knife for a knee reconstruction and then endured a lengthy rehabilitation process.
“I did it in the last training session before our first trial match. It wasn’t too good a time to do it,” Hewitt said.
“I was pretty much just pushing up and I got hit from the side ... it was pretty ugly.
“I didn’t even get to play in a trial for them. I missed the full season, so I was pretty filthy.”
Hewitt went under the knife in May and, after a couple of weeks recovering from surgery, began his rehabilitation program.
Much of it involved working on his own and Hewitt admitted it was tough to watch his team-mates in action at the same time.
“I have never missed a season before,” the 22-year-old said.
“At the start I would show up to training and then it was pretty hard to watch the boys run out on the field.
“I sort of ended up only watching a few of the games. I didn’t really want to watch.”
Hewitt was not the only member of the Seagulls squad to pick up a season-ending injury. In the end, only a handful of regulars remained and Tweed missed out on qualifying for the Queensland Cup finals series.
“We had a terrible run. With eight games to go, we had nine of our starters in the Q Cup out for the season. We ended up with more players on the sidelines than we had on the bench,” Hewitt said.
“They had to win their last two games to finish in the eight and I think they lost one of those by a pretty close margin.”
Still, that disappointment experienced by Hewitt and his fellow Seagulls is now acting as motivation.
They had some full-contact sessions before Christmas and the Bathurst product said there was noticeably more intensity than in their 2015 pre-season.
As for what role Hewitt will fill – he has played both in the halves and at hooker – he is unsure.
For him it is more about getting on the field and remaining fit for the season.
“It was a really long process to get back, so I am 100 per cent just looking forward to getting back to it now,” he said.
“So far I have trained a lot in the halves again, but I have been doing a fair bit at hooker as well, so I am just taking it as it comes. I think we are fairly well off in both of those positions, but I am just aiming to get out there on the field.
“I haven’t cut any corners. I have been working hard. I don’t mind where I play, I just want to step onto the field.”
The first round of the 2016 Q Cup season will be played on the weekend of March 5-6, when the Seagulls meet the Easts Tigers.
