The illustrious career of Kempsey-born Aiden Tolman keeps on rolling after the Smithtown Tigers junior re-signed for another year with the Cronulla Sharks.
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Tolman currently sits four games shy of the 300-game mark and also took on a leadership role in the second half of the 2021 season.
"That's (300 games) obviously an individual goal of mine, I'll have to train really well in the off-season to give myself the best chance of playing in round one," he explained.
"To play 300 games would be a huge achievement, there's a lot of hard work between here and there.
"I'm not there yet but to get to that number (would be great) from an individual point of view and probably everyone that's helped along the way.
"Even where I'm at now, 296 is still a great achievement, I'm very lucky to have played in the NRL as long as I have and hopefully going around again I can make that magic milestone."
That's (300 games) obviously an individual goal of mine, I'll have to train really well in the off-season to give myself the best chance of playing in round one.
- Aiden Tolman
Tolman's recent contract renewal coincided with Cronulla's signing of former Roosters winger Matt Ikuvalu, 2021 Olympian and Australian Rugby Sevens star Locky Miller and reigning Queensland Cup Player of the Year Jayden Berrell.
The club have also secured Melbourne Storm duo Nicho Hynes and Dale Finucane and former Sydney Roosters assistant coach Craig Fitzgibbon.
"I'm stoked, and grateful," Tolman said.
"I really enjoyed my season at Cronulla last year so to be signed on again, I'm really looking forward to it.
"The club's made some great signings coming into the 2022 season, on the field with the likes of Nicho Hynes and Dale Finucane but the coaching staff as well with Craig coming across and Steve Price among others."
"It's really exciting around the place at the moment, everyone's keen to get back into the season."
Tolman hopes the 2022 season will be different to the 2021 campaign which was punctuated by COVID.
After COVID wreaked havoc on New South Wales halfway through the season, the players were moved into hubs in Queensland.
Tolman saw the experience as something to be thankful for with COVID impacting the livelihoods of people throughout his home state.
"It wasn't ideal being away from home, we were grateful to still be able to work and play footy," he said.
"The NRL and Qld government were generous to fly all our families up if they wanted to come.
"You can't ask for much more than that, the NRL did a great job to continue the season, continue to work and hopefully we put on some entertaining football for members and fans out there.
"Everyone was going through tough times in Australia so we were lucky enough to go to Qld, play out there and get out of the hub.
"We still had some minor restrictions but we were able to enjoy it, I felt for our families and friends in NSW that didn't have that luxury.
"It was one of those years that are hopefully behind us and we never see again but we were lucky enough to get through the season."
Luckily enough playing the back of the year in Qld, we made our way down once regional NSW came out of lockdown.
- Aiden Tolman
Conveniently, with Hat Head situated in the middle of Brisbane and Sydney, his hometown proved a perfect stop-over for the trip back.
"Luckily enough playing the back of the year in Qld, we made our way down once regional NSW came out of lockdown," he said.
"We stopped off for a bit then obviously Kempsey went into another lockdown so that was a bit unfortunate.
"However in between the lockdowns we were able to stop off and see family and friends, we hadn't been there since middle of the year."
The Sharks round one fixture will see them on the road, as they face off with the Raiders in Canberra.
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