Inside the AFL pre-season: How and why summer footy programs have changed

Not long ago, fitness fanatics smashed players at pre-season training – balls were locked away, and limits were pushed. Now, AFL clubs do it differently. Go inside the new-age programs.

The famous days of Malcolm Blight locking the footballs away until after Christmas or Tom Hafey smashing his players over summer get further and further away every pre-season.

But for a moment on Friday, a summer session went old school at Essendon.

After a lengthy intra-club hitout, Bombers players were sent behind the goals at the Hangar to run and up and down a hill as assistant coaches swung bump bags at them.

The physical test only lasted five minutes and in this scientific and professional era, it stood out as a flashback to the way things used to be.

This summer more than ever, the genuine running sessions are out, as clubs zero in more on ball drills and match play than ever before.

As St Kilda champion Nathan Burke told the Sacked podcast this year, when Blight was ill-fatedly appointed at Moorabbin before the 2001 season the Saints “didn’t touch a ball from the start of pre-season until Christmas … we just ran and ran and ran.”

The Bombers were sent for an old school run before Christmas. Picture: Mark Stewart

Malcolm Blight famously worked the Saints during pre-season.

Most clubs welcome players back with a time trial run of sorts – usually a 2km race – and that can be used to assess the fitness levels of the returning athletes to build their individual running programs.

But then once they grab a drink, the balls come out.

That’s because players are urged to come back in cherry ripe shape, having been handed detailed programs when they cleaned out their lockers in September or October.

Essendon coach Brad Scott made it crystal clear to his players that they needed to be ready to go when they came back for the start of pre-season in November, and the Bombers went pretty much straight into ball work.

With gamestyles and positioning more important than ever, more minutes are spent on getting plans right.

Basketball giant Shaquille O’Neal famously said he chose not to come into NBA pre-season camp in good shape because he would get paid in the season to find fitness.

Geelong great Cameron Mooney admitted recently that in his generation, players let the rope go once the season ended then caught up when pre-season started.

Straight running isn’t as commonplace at AFL pre-season these days. Picture: Dylan Burns/AFL Photos

But with the footy season longer than ever before, those days are gone and more stars than ever head overseas in their ‘breaks’ for fitness camps.

Hawks fitness head Peter Burge noted in a club behind-the-scenes video that the strong finish to Hawthorn’s season and finals appearance meant his team would hold on to its fitness base form 2024.

“How many games did we play last year? 25. And mostly good games in particular towards the end,” he said.

“The level of conditioning that we have built playing in big games, particularly at the end, that is in you, you still have that. And we are going to be able to tap into that really quickly.”

Nick Larkey has appreciated a change in North training. Picture: Quinn Rooney/Getty Images

The pre-season truly goes on and on, with Cats skipper Patrick Dangerfield noting recently that players that make the most of staying sharp over the Christmas break will have an advantage, given practice games will only be five weeks away when clubs return in the new year.

More than ever before, players are on tailored minutes, with often up to eight players warming up separately to the group at Carlton training.

At North Melbourne, a quick running spot is squeezed in around drills, rather than as a big block.

“The way we are doing running into the session rather than at the end, the players appreciate but it is also a bit more game-like where you are fatigued in the drill,” Roos goalkicker Nick Larkey said.

“Last year … a lot of the running block was at the back-end which can be a grind. But it was more for mental toughness.”

Few in the footy industry have noted the changes to pre-season more than respected fitness boss Andrew Russell, who worked at Essendon, Port Adelaide, Hawthorn and Carlton.

When working with Mark Williams at the Power leading into the 2004 flag, Russell estimated his team did 70 per cent running and 30 per cent genuine football drills in early pre-season.

But that has flipped on its head now.

“If you’re having to get guys into shape physically or in good general fitness you can’t do a high performance football program,” he told SEN recently.

“A lot of football programs are getting into ball drills and game play in their first week back. They are actually practising strategy and the way they are moving the ball and getting their team connection almost from day one of pre-season.

“Our program last year at Carlton we went so far one way, we had 80 per cent of our total load was in our ball program.”