The Thunder has been one of the busiest clubs on the player market under new coach Robbie Byatt.

And things haven't slowed down as the season start finally approaches.

Fullback Jade Duroux has also linked with the club after playing for South Grafton last year and Byatt is looking to use his versatility across their back line.

Englishman Nathan Darby has also joined their ranks.

Darby is set to add plenty of aggression to their forward pack, which also features former Newcastle prop Sam Collins and Byatt's brother Matt, who has joined the club from Tumut.

Byatt is pleased with the size their pack is starting to take now that Darby has arrived.

"He's going to be an aggressor, it will be good to have that extra punch with him around the middle, Byatt said. "We have a handy forward pack, so he'll add to it now. He's a good, tough front rower and that's what we've been missing in the last couple of years."

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Sabastian Rapana has also returned to the club after a short stint in 2019.

The Thunder have also brought in Paul Karaitana, who has been impressive throughout their pre-season campaign, Jackins Olam and Faamai Aleni.

However they have lost halfback recruit Izaak Toby, who has returned to North Queensland.

Welsh international James Olds won't back for a second season while former coach Adrian Purtell has linked with Eden

Another big loss is former Riverina representative Joe Lumb while fellow Englishman Brad Hill won't be back for another season either.

Despite plenty of new faces coming on board, the Thunder are comfortably within the new player points index.

"We were fine with points. When they did ours we still had a few to spare," Byatt said. "That was good as I thought we might have been up there but there was that window where if you had already signed players they were less points.

"I think we're only up to like 60 points (with the maximum 100)."

The busy off-season has seen some early rewards with the Thunder putting in some strong pre-season performances.

They've taken wins over West Belconnen, Leeton and Southcity in the build up to their first round clash with Tumut on Sunday.

The Blues will be a big test to start the season at Greenfield Park.

Tumut took a 46-6 win over Albury in what was to be the last game of the season last year but Byatt is looking forward to the challenge.

"It will be a great test first up as they will be tough," he said.

While things are looking more positive for Albury's first grade outfit, the club has been unable to field teams in both the Sullivan Cup and Weissel Cup.

Both junior competitions are down to seven teams with Gundagai not having enough numbers for an under 16s team while Brothers don't have an under 18s outfit.

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