Essendon forward Patrick Ambrose has taken out the club’s first time trial of the 2015 pre-season at Princess Park.

The club’s first to fourth year players took part in a 2km trial on Thursday morning as part of their extensive two day’s of testing to begin pre-season.

High Performance Manager Justin Crow was impressed with how the group fared on just their second day back from a break.

“We were really happy with how the guys came back today and ran,” Crow said.

“We had seven personal best times which his excellent for day one and it gives us something to build off with this first to four year group.”

In fine conditions notable performances came from Kurt Aylett and Elliott Kavanagh who came in second and third position.

Joe Daniher, Michael Hibberd and Will Hams were among others to perform well in the annual test of endurance.

Ambrose said he was pleased with his performance in just his second pre-season at the club.

“I felt pretty good, I had a good rest in the off season but have started to ramp up the training so it was good to hit my time,” Ambrose said.

“It is definetly a big part of my game, I have always been fit and now just need to work on my speed.”

“It helps with my repeat leads, staying a bit fresher until the last quarter. With the interchange cap now it is even more important to be fit.”