Raiders head of physical performance Nigel Ashley-Jones has worked up from there to the point of rookie Harley Smith-Shields.

Smith-Shields might be in his first NRL season and yet to make his debut, but Ashley-Jones says he has one of the most impressive home gyms going around.

Ashley-Jones has also ensured the players' mental health was being looked after having gone from nailing their pre-season with an unbeaten start to the NRL campaign to the league being indefinitely shutdown overnight.

Ensuring players cope with that transition has been just as important as keeping them physically fit.

When the NRL first shutdown, players were still able to train in small groups, but the NRL's new protocols mean even that's no longer possible.

They have to train alone, aren't allowed to use the Raiders gym and can't have visitors to their home.

Ashley-Jones has split the playing group up amongst his staff, with each member of the strength-and-conditioning group having five players to coordinate with.

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They've got an online system through which the players access their training schedule, with the new regime coming into effect on Monday.

It's "satellite coaching" from now until the pandemic ends.

"We've put wheelbarrow sessions together and brick sessions together. We've just had to innovate," Ashley-Jones said.

"Your Harley Smith-Shields, he's not a problem, he's got the best home gym you've ever seen.

"Johnny Bateman's got a fair set up, but then you've got the other players with zero."

The Raiders might have had a short pre-season - due to making the 2019 NRL grand final plus having a lot of representative players - but Ashley-Jones said it had been a great one.

It saw them hit the ground running in the opening two rounds, beating the Gold Coast Titans and the New Zealand Warriors comfortably before the NRL shutdown.

They were already showing signs their tag as one of the competition favourites was warranted.

Then everything came to a sudden halt. And now they're almost completely confined to their house.

It's why Ashley-Jones has split the players up amongst his staff.

Every day they'll check in with those they're working with to ensure there's at least some interaction with the outside world.

Not all of the players have partners and families to talk to throughout the day.

"Part of that well-being group is to see how they're coping and to, put it simply, cheer each other up as well," Ashley-Jones said.

"We're really spending a bit of time on that starting from this weekend. We just have that ... social contact - that's suddenly gone.

"If you've got wife or kids it's probably less stressful, but there's players that we have that don't have that."