Fearnley first linked with the Panthers as a 17-year-old, his debut season with the club impressive as he was named their SG Ball player of the year.

While the COVID-19 pandemic has limited his opportunities at the club since then - he didn't get to play Jersey Flegg in 2020 and this season was cancelled after 13 rounds - the Panthers still saw plenty of potential in Fearnley.

Last week they offered the six-foot-two Bathurst forward a one-year contract extension with the intention of having him play in the NSW Cup. They also invited him to train with the NRL squad for six weeks after Christmas.

"I'm still eligible for Flegg, but they way they've described it is that I'm signed in to play reserve grade," Fearnley said.

"Until Christmas I'll be training with the reserve grade squad, after Christmas it will be six weeks with first grade and then after that it's hopefully NSW Cup with reserve grade and I'll be playing week-in, week-out there."

The extension helped ease some of the nerves Fearnley had about the coming season and he still had some ahead of pre-season training with the reserve grade squad.

But that was balanced by his excitement to get back to work with his team-mates.

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"We were lucky to get 12 games last season, but it's probably a little bit nerve-racking to see where you are at the next couple of weeks training-wise," he said.

"You always get that bit of anxiety before you start to see where you are at against other people. But I'm looking forward to it."

When Fearnley joins the Panthers' NRL squad he knows that level of intensity at training will increase, but he jumped at the chance to work with the reigning premiers.

What will help is that he has trained alongside them before and knows what he will be in for.

"I was a bit surprised actually [to get invited], but I wasn't going to say no and I was pretty stoked when they told me," he said.

"I actually did it last year as well, I was lucky enough to do it just after Christmas with them, so it will be good finding that routine again and not going into this year not knowing what it is like up there.

"I have that bit of experience of how to handle it.

"Last year I remember telling Dad about it and I said that I think they'll go pretty close to winning it [NRL]. You can see why they're so successful when you actually get up there and train with them, they just won't accept anything unless it's perfect.

"You know you won't be on the field unless you're nailing it at training."

As for what the biggest difference Fearnley expects to face when training with the NRL squad, it's not the fitness work. It is testing himself against a big, strong forward pack.

"Ivan's big thing is that if you're fit the rest will follow, but one of the big things I found was the physicality side, they don't go easy on each other," he said.

"That's the main part I look forward to most, tackling blokes like James Fisher-Harris and [Viliame] Kikau, they're big blokes."

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