Melbourne halfback Cooper Cronk believes former Test prop Jason Ryles could give the Storm the physical edge they’ve been missing this NRL season.

Ryles, who has joined from the Sydney Roosters, will play his first match in Storm colours in the club’s second pre-season trial game against Canberra in Albury on Saturday.

And Cronk said he was keen to see what the 33-year-old could offer after putting in a strong pre-season effort.

“He’s getting on in age but he’s training really well,” he said.

“He’s a big body, he’s something that we were missing the last couple of years.

“I was just speaking to him and he’s really keen on being a part of the scene for the next 12 months.”

With the departure of star forward Adam Blair to Wests Tigers, the Storm are looking to Ryles and Ryan Hoffman, who has returned after a season away playing with Wigan in the Super League, to bring experience and muscle to the pack after being ousted from the finals by the physical Warriors outfit.

Much interest also surrounds Ryles progress in Melbourne given coach Craig Bellamy’s reputation for giving ageing forwards a new lease of life.

The Storm named a strong 25-man squad to face the Raiders, who they will also meet in round one of the season on March 3 in Canberra.

The most notable omissions are skipper Cameron Smith, who has a shoulder injury, and fellow Test stars fullback Billy Slater, and Cronk, who are being rested.

That trio is expected to play in the Storm’s final hitout, against Brisbane in Hobart on February 18.

Still to make a decision on his playing future, the off-contract and in-demand Cronk was happy for the attention to be on his teammates.

“There’s a lot of guys who’ve had a long pre-season and they’re itching at the bit to impress,” Cronk said.

“There’s a few new guys to the club who need to find out what Melbourne Storm football’s all about.”

Cronk said training had gone up a notch with the 2012 season just a few weeks away.

“The way that Craig (Bellamy) manages his pre-season, it’s all about training really hard, running a lot of kilometres and doing a lot of lifting in the gym,” he said.

“At some point that gets to blokes, they’ve had enough of that and they want to get out there and play some football.”