The Essendon players resumed official pre-season training this morning. Over the three-week Christmas break, all players followed individual training programs. Fitness coach John Quinn expected the players to return in peak physical condition ready to continue high intensity training. ""The players are elite athletes and it is unprofessional if they return overweight. This is my fifth pre-season at the club and I have never had an instance where someone has let the team down and I have been disappointed,"" Quinn said.

""I have been speaking to all the players every two to three days and they are all training hard as well as enjoying a bit of a break. I don't expect any surprises with the fitness test results,"" Quinn said. The players will undergo extensive fitness testing this week, including 3.2km time trial at Princess Park on Wednesday, skinfold tests and speed tests. ""The tests give us an indication of the player's fitness levels and their training progress. The players are very competitive, so the time trial on Wednesday should be interesting. Scott Howard recorded the fastest time in the October time trial, so there will be a number of players looking to run quicker time.""

The players will return to La Trobe University this afternoon at 3pm for their first skills session of the new year and will follow up with another skills session at La Trobe on Wednesday morning at 11am. Windy Hill is unavailable for skills training until March. ""We didn't do a lot of work with the footballs before Christmas, so that will be one of the main focus' in the new year, especially with the football season just around the corner,"" Quinn said.