One year ago Tyler Randell had less than 20 minutes of NRL experience to his name as he battled for a place in the Knights’ NRL side during the 2015 pre-season.
Since then he has played 20 games, scored four tries and signed on at the Club for a further two years.
Heading into 2016, the 23-year old is the Club’s senior hooker.
“I feel like an older guy in the team, which is a bit scary!” he told Knights TV with a grin.
“I’m really enjoying it, the first two weeks back went really quick and it’s good to come back here and see people you haven’t seen for a while.”
Randell is also enjoying working under two past dummy-half greats in the form of assistant coach Danny Buderus and head coach Nathan Brown.
Between them, the pair have almost 500 NRL games to their names, which is something that Randell isn’t taking for granted.
“It’s really good having Danny and Browny here,” he said.
“They both played hooker and hooker wasn’t my position growing up so I need all the extra tips and advice I can get.”
Randell played most of his junior football in the halves, but the utility now sees himself as a hooker for the long term.
“I’m just concentrating on hooker, last year was sort of my first year there and I played there all year,” he explained.
“So I just want to concentrate on hooker, but I also don’t want to take away that utility value as well.
“I think that utility value is important now that someone like Kurt (Gidley) has left, he’s been a utility here for a long time and these days there’s not that many people who can play a few positions, so I don’t want to take that away from myself.”
Whatever the 2016 season throws at Randell, he’s determined to continue his steady development.
“I’ve had one year, so I think I need to perform a little better and I can’t stay at the same level,” he said.
“I’m going to keep on trying to make myself a better player and also a better person here at the Club.”
