Essendon players faced gruelling and humid conditions on Thursday morning for their 2km time trial around Princes Park.
Young forward Patrick Ambrose led the pack ahead of midfielder Elliott Kavanagh and veteran Brent Stanton.
Stanton said the entire group had impressed with the times they had posted since returning from the break.
“The results will show that we are probably getting a lot of personal bests at this time, “ Stanton said.
“We still have a long way to Round 1 and we have been building into the pre-season which the fitness staff have done a great job at doing.
“The fitness of all the guys across the board is to a level where we are pushing each other and we are getting results for that.”
Ambrose was pleased with his result as he continues to build a strong fitness base ahead of the season.
“It was good to come first again but Kav was hot on my heels and Stants was close behind so it was good to see all the boys improving,” Ambrose said.
“It is definitely a lot more competitive then last year, so everyone is looking fit and progressing from the last few years.”
Coach James Hird surprised the playing group at the completion of the time trial making them do a second run within five minutes.
Stanton said the second run was a good test of the players mental resilience and attitude.
“Hirdy did it to us four years ago and the mind set was not too flash and we probably stewed on it too long,”
“Today that was the most impressive thing about this football team at the moment, the young guys build up the older guys and we cracked in and did it.”
“We set a time that everyone had to get into and it was a great result that the boys really pushed each other through.”
2km Time Trial Top Ten
Patrick Ambrose
Elliott Kavanagh
Brent Stanton
Nick O’Brien
Jackson Merrett
Ariel Steinberg
Orazio Fantasia
Jake Melksham
David Zaharakis
Dyson Heppell
