Workington Town centre Jason Mossop believes that the experience of the past 10 months will help better prepare the side as they begin their pre-season preparations next week.

With the introduction of the Super 8s system last season, each team in the league played a minimum of 31 competitive fixtures, including the Challenge Cup Fourth Round – four more than in the previous year.

After being part of a 31-game season last year, and helped by a bigger squad, Mossop believes that Town will be better prepared for 2016.

“It was a really long season last year,” Mossop said. “You can’t make excuses for it, but we all have full-time jobs and I think from January to October we only had two free weekends.

“I don’t think anyone expected the season to be as long as it was and it took its toll on us at times, especially with the size of the squad we had.

“You look at some of the full-time teams in our league and they were able to rotate their squad and rest players as the season went on, we didn’t have that luxury.

“So having experienced that already, and having a few new faces in the squad can only help us better prepare for next year.”

Centre Declan Hulme is one of the new faces at Zebra Claims Stadium and Mossop is relishing the competition for first-team places next season.

“Pre-season will be tough for everyone but you can’t turn up and not have a shot at it,” he continued.

“We’ve got a few new faces at the club and it’s good to have the core of our squad still there.

“Dec is a good player, I’ve played with him and against him and he’s always played well so I’m looking forward to the challenge.”

Speaking about the re-signing of captain Graeme Mattinson, Mossop added: “He’s shown over the years that he is a quality player.

“He’s regarded as one of the best hookers outside of Super League and he’s a dedicated professional.

“It’s a great signing for the club, he leads from the front and he makes other players want to follow him.”