Leeds Rhinos recruit outlines major goal amid Brad Arthur pre-season claim

New signing Cooper Jenkins says pre-season training with Leeds Rhinos is tougher than he experienced at NRL clubs.

The front-rower joined Rhinos last month from Queensland Cup and NRL State champions Norths Devils on a two-year contract.

He is yet to play  in Australia’s top-flight, but came through the development system at hometown club Newcastle Knights and has trained with NRL outfit Dolphins.

Rhinos boss Brad Arthur – the former Parramatta Eels coach – has put a big emphasis on fitness after Leeds’ second successive eighth-placed finish in 2024 and Cooper admitted Rhinos’ new-look squad are being made to dig deep with more than two months still to go until their season-opener against promoted Wakefield Trinity.

“Super League is definitely a step up [from Queensland Cup],” Jenkins stressed. “Pre-season has been tough, probably the toughest I’ve done. I have done a couple of NRL ones as well.

“The level of footy is way higher than Queensland Cup; it will be interesting to see how the game is, but it’ll definitely be a different game over here.

“I am keen to get a trial [game] and see how it goes.”

Jenkins was snapped up by Rhinos after an outstanding season with Norths. Ironically, he left the Brisbane-based club just as Rohan Smith – who departed Leeds in June – returned there for a second spell as coach.

Explaining his move to England, the 23-year-old insisted: “It is a big opportunity for me to come and play for such a great club, under a good coach and good organisation.

“I want to come over and prove myself and hopefully be playing week-in, week-out for Leeds.

“It is early in my career, but they’ve just changed the criteria for us young fellas to come over here.

“It makes it easier for us to get over here and that expands our options of where we can play. I thought playing regular Super League would be the best for me at the moment.

“Everyone wants to play in  the NRL, but I’d love to come over here and prove myself, see how I enjoy it and who knows what’s in the future for me?

“My goal is just to keep healthy and improve my game under a lot of great players at the club and see what I can do over the next couple of years.”

Jenkins accepts he will be competing with more experienced players for a place in Rhinos’ new-look 17.

He noted: “The squad here is good and we have good depth, especially in our forwards and middle ranks.

“That’s making us compete for our spots. It brings the training intensity up, we are all competing against each other, but we all want to do well for each other as well.”

The Australian has some versatility, but is likely to feature in the front-row for Leeds.

“I’ve played middle for probably the last two years,” he said.

“I was an edge back-rower before that and a centre before that, so I’ve kind of worked my way in, but at the moment I just train in the middle.

“I am always an option playing out wide, I am pretty athletic so I can do that if there’s an injury or something.”