But injury derailed his 2020 campaign with St George Illawarra before it even got off the ground.

"To be honest, all the players that are left from last year's squad have tried to put the 2020 season behind us as quickly as possible," Sims said.

"Not to mention, there's very little coaching staff who are still here - everyone is just focusing on themselves and what we can control inside these gates during pre-season training.

"Hook [Anthony Griffin] and all the new coaches have emphasised looking after the controllables and that has helped has hit every target they've put on front of us as a playing group.

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"It's been one of those pre-seasons that's been bloody tough - we've had no quit in us by answering every question asked of us and everyone is right where they want to be heading into round one.

"It's also been impressive, with such a young group, we haven't had any misdemeanours, such as turning up late to training - everyone's commitment has been 10 out of 10."

This combined with Sims' first surgery-free pre-season in years, has the 31-year-old primed for his best season to date.

"I can't remember the last time I didn't start a pre-season without a surgery and although I had an operation at the start of last year to fix my broken arm, it hasn't hampered this pre-season," he said.

"Thankfully that was my surgery done for 2020 and I was lucky enough to finish off the season not needing any more operations.

"It allowed me to stay fit and healthy over our break, seeing me hit the ground running when pre-season started at the end of last year.

"The structure of our training has been perfect for me and I'm feeling as good as I've felt going into round one."

As the Kiama High School alumnus touched on, with so many young talents in the squad, he, along with skipper Ben Hunt and Paul Vaughan, are among the leaders of the Red V in 2021.

"I've enjoyed the extra responsibility of being a leader of the group, which is made easier by having so many other experienced players in the squad," the Fijian international said.

"But everyone in our team holds each other accountable and adapts to whatever is needed - for example, the only time we had holes in our defensive line last season is when we dropped our defensive structures, which at the end of the day is all about effort and concentration.

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"As long as we improve on those small areas, I'm confident we will make big strides in 2021."

Some of those young talents include fellow Group Seven products Adam Clune (Albion Park-Oak Flats) and Jackson Ford (Gerringong), which Sims has high hopes for.

"Jacko's got a really good opportunity this season to showcase his talents because I've seen first hand all the hard work he's been putting in," Sims said.

"It's always great to see a fellow Lion such as Jacko progress the way he has and I'm always there to point him in the right direction if he needs it.

"Obviously we got plenty of handy back-rowers at the club at the moment but I'm confident whenever he gets his chance, he will make the most of it."

Although Ford isn't in the Dragons' 17-man squad for round one, the rest of the team, including Sims, is focused on securing two points when they the Sharks at Netstrata Jubilee Stadium on Sunday.

"The main aspect Hook has told me to worry about, in terms of my game, is going out there and getting after it," Sims said.

"I don't need to worry about doing anyone else's job except my own, which I plan on doing 100 per cent of the time.

"It's pretty simple - I know what I like to do, what I want to do, so it's all about going out there and executing it."

If the Dragons are to start the season off in a positive way, Sims acknowledges they'll need to slow down Cronulla-Sutherland's dangerous forward pack.

"You can't go past the Sharks forward pack, they're big, they're mobile and they've got players, such as Aaron Woods, who have offloads in their games," he said.

"Then there's someone like Andrew Fifita, who I watched during the All Stars game and he looks tremendous - from the outside looking in, it appears he's in for one of those years where's he terrorising opponents' defensive lines at will.

"As a football fan, watching him play like that excites me but as someone who's probably going to have to try and tackle him on the weekend, it's a little concerning - I'll be sure to yell at my middles to work as hard as they can to shut down players such as Fifita.

"We know our trial form wasn't great but we are all confident we can produce a better 80-minute performance come Sunday."