JSL's aim is to make an impact!

2021 is Jesse Sene-Lefao’s fifth season with the Tigers but no pre-season has ever been quite like this one, with no usual Christmas break, it has been a long, hard-worked journey since starting back on January 4th.

With the Betfred Super League campaign kicking off in just over two weeks time, and with a pre-season fixture on Sunday, Jesse has been delighted with the preparation Castleford have been putting in.

“It’s been challenging to be honest; it’s been an awesome start and we’re coming to an awesome finish of this block of the pre-season. I’m very excited with what we have here at The Jungle, everyone has been competing and a lot of people have been performing in training. Now it’s about putting this hard work out there on the field.”

The Fords’ First Team squad looks highly competitive across the park with new additions coming in and young players wanting to step up. However, Sene-Lefao believes that the competitive attitude has not changed since he first arrived.

“I don’t think that mindset has changed since I got here, it’s always been competitive at Cas and it’s one of the reasons we show up the way we do every day. You have to show up and be your best and that is the mentality over here and it’s a good thing that is also exciting.”

Among the new faces for the season is Suaia Matagi who has settled into life as a Tigers incredibly quickly, finding friends with Peter Mata’utia, Sosaia Feki, Tyla Hepi and Jesse himself too. This group of close-knit players have their own targets and discussions related to their careers too.

“We have this theme for the month which is; ‘making our time intentional’ and that is among the groups we hang around with, the language we speak and the conversations we want to be a part of. Suaia is one of those people who when you spend five or ten minutes with him it is intentional and it is all to you, you have him focused for that five or ten minutes. That is the kind of theme for the month for us as our ‘pod’ as we call it here.

“Our pod is about mindfulness, we like to inspire one another, we like to encourage and we’re not afraid about what hurts and doesn’t hurt. In saying that I feel it is helping our team grow, I feel it is infectious and spreads good energy around the club and I feel like we all have a purpose here which is shining through us.”

Determined as ever, the happiest man in rugby league off the field is aiming to bring his own intensity onto it in the new season.

“My aim in 2021 is impact. If I can impact people off the field, a positive impact, that is my goal but, on the field, I want to make the biggest impact for our team and if I can do that all my other goals will take care of themselves.”