Canberra Raiders front rower Shannon Boyd is confident he can remain as devastating in attack despite playing lighter in an effort to adapt to the NRL's new interchange rules.
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Boyd signed an upgraded contract on Tuesday which will keep him at the Raiders until the end of 2018.
He returned to pre-season training this week for tests, and revealed he was keen to get his playing weight down to at least 120kg.
"I came back at a decent weight, I went up in my skin folds a little bit but that happens when you have seven weeks off," Boyd said.
"All my scans have come back alright, so now I can just rip in for a couple of months and get the other bit of weight off and I'll be cheering."
The competition's new rules will restrict teams to just eight interchanges each game in 2016 - down from this season's 10. The NRL will also adapt shot clock rules at scrums and drop-outs in a bid to speed up the game.
But Boyd said coach Ricky Stuart had already started to give his forwards a preview of how the system would work in 2016.
"We played a couple of games last year where we had only used eight interchanges up until the last three or four minutes and Ricky just wanted to give some guys a bit of game time right at the end, so I don't think it will change the game dramatically.
"If it was six I think it would be a big challenge but at eight interchanges I think it will still be pretty similar to what it is now."
The Raiders have been in the market for another prop after losing David Shillington and Dane Tilse this year.
The club signed veteran front rower Jeff Lima from English Super League club Catalans Dragons, and are monitoring the salary cap situation of rival clubs closely as they search for more depth.
Boyd admitted it was pleasing to know the club had faith in him to deliver long term.
"I think we do need a front rower for depth - if we get an injury then all of a sudden we're a bit short but I'm sure Rick will sort that out," he said.
"I just wanted to get in and re-sign early and lock it in, I'm happy down here and I've got a lot of good mates here so it's good to be here for another three years.
"It's good to see they've shown that confidence in me. I try and train hard and work hard for them, if I can prove I can do that, hopefully with the eight interchanges it won't effect me at all but we'll wait and see - hopefully I can keep the weight down."
