They did so as they know every moment spent together on a training paddock will be a valuable part of their preparation for this year’s annual pre-season knockout.

With Bathurst Regional Council keen to have Carrington Park in prime condition for June’s NRL match between the Penrith Panthers and Canberra Raiders, the Bathurst Panthers’ knockout will be played earlier this year.

Instead of taking place in late March, the knockout for Group 10 clubs will be contested on the second weekend of February.

"It was stinking hot, but you've got to do it though, you can't help the weather,” Panthers premier league coach Todd Barrow said.

"It's only a few weeks until the knockout, so we will have our work cut out for us to get ready in that short amount of time, but everyone's in the same boat.

"It is what it is, we can't do too much about it. An NRL game is good for Bathurst, so we have got to work around that. It's obviously not ideal to train at Morse and not Carrington, but as I said, the NRL game is great for the town and we all support it.”

Panthers will go into the knockout as the defending champions, having broken a nine-year drought when downing Orange CYMS 38-6 in the 2016 decider.

Since then Barrow’s squad has been strengthened with playmaker Doug Hewitt plus forwards Simon Osborne and Garrett Field signing up for 2017.

In signing those players Panthers hope to improve on last season’s premier league campaign, the men in black reaching the preliminary final.

But Barrow said everyone needs to earn their spot, with plenty of enthusiasm shown from the 40-odd seniors who attended last Thursday’s training session.

"I haven't seen the boys this keen since I've been at Bathurst. The turnout [at training] was great and how fit everyone looked, it's a good start,” he said.

"The boys are ready to do the work and hopefully we can keep working hard and go a couple better than last year.

"I suppose you can sign whoever you want, but we've spoke about it already, you've got to do the hard work as well.

“The boys worked really hard last year and we got the results on the back of it. We weren't quite good enough, but in saying that, I don't think we were too far away.

"Obviously not having any trial at all leading into the knockout, our side is probably going to be more based on last year's squad because I won't have that chance to look at other players.”

The knockout forms part of what is shaping as a solid pre-season program for Panthers, with two more tournaments and a pair of trials on the cards as well.

"We are going to the West Wyalong Knockout this year, this will be the first time we've done it since I've been in Bathurst, so that will be good,” Barrow said.

"We are also going to the Mudgee Nines again this year. Even though we are going to West Wyalong on the same weekend, we will still send a squad over to the nines at Mudgee as well.

"Then we've got a trial lined up down in Shellharbour after that, then a week later we are going to try and organise a local one.”