It's taken a season and a half for it to happen but our spine looks like it will finally be reunited on Saturday night against the Cowboys at home.
It's going to be huge for us during the run-in to the finals. You've got to go back to very early last season for the last time Jayden Brailey, Mitchell Pearce and Kalyn Ponga played together.
It was our second round game against Wests Tigers when Brails did his knee and we haven't had the trio on the field together since. In fact, we've hardly had them on the training paddock together since that day.
Injuries have really cruelled us in that regard. So to have K [Ponga] back this week and looking really sharp at training alongside Ju [Pearce] and Brails has been massive.
Fingers crossed he has completely shaken off his groin injury and has no more dramas this season. His influence and the confidence he brings to the boys is immense.
His skill level is off the charts and just having his voice at training again has been great. Even better is the fact we've added Jake Clifford into that mix now which only gives us more options and more strike-power.
I'm looking forward to seeing what they will bring to the table for us. It's exciting to think about it. It's definitely easily the strongest spine we have put on the field since I have been at the club.
It will be up to us big boys up front to get them on the front foot and give them a decent platform to work off.
Everyone is rested up so there is going to be no excuses on Saturday. With the bye round, we were all given the week off and most took the opportunity to get away.
I took my family up to the Gold Coast and got to spend some quality time with them but we still had to tick things over training-wise while we were away to make sure we were ready to hit the ground running this week.
It's a tricky little period coming off a bye with the Cowboys this weekend followed by another bye leading into big games to come against Storm and Roosters.
We got the ball rolling with our tough win over the Warriors but we can improve heaps on that and need to keep building momentum.
Defensively, I thought we did a really good job in really tough conditions that made it difficult to put much attack together. The important thing was we got the job done and got the win.
As for myself, I'm happy to just be doing my job for the team. I'm not going to lie, I'll be striving to get a spot in the starting side back and putting as much pressure as I can on the Saf boys [Daniel and Jacob Saifiti]. They are both going great and I thought Daniel was enormous again for the Blues in Origin II.
We are going to be really tested though this week. The Cowboys have a big pack, led by Jason Taumalolo, who will come at us hard. But we'll be ready for it.
