Rivals Gary Ablett, Shane Edwards and Dan Hannebery become hub training partners

Gary Ablett puts one on the chest of Shane Edwards, who dishes off a handball to Saint Dan Hannebery.

Richmond’s Shane Edwards and Geelong’s Gary Ablett train together on Friday

The move by Gary Ablett was instinctive and familiar, even if the scene and circumstances were as unusual on Friday as at any time in the champion’s career.

The dual-Brownlow Medallist watched the flight of the ball closely and found position just as Andrew Mackie, his former premiership teammate, deflected the Sherrin to the ground.

The 36-year-old grasped it in a flash, wheeled swiftly on to his right boot and zipped a 20m pass towards a voice yelling “Gaz”. Not surprising, the ball thumped into their chest.

But in this training session, which occurred on a patch of grass about 60m long and 40m wide, the target was a rival player.

As soon as Tiger Shane Edwards took the mark, he evaded the shadowing of Richmond’s development coach Sam Lonergan to dish off a handball to Saint Dan Hannebery.

For the next 45 minutes on a sweaty Queensland morning, the parade of AFL stars completed various forms of circle work as they readied themselves for a return to football.

The training ground at the Palm Meadows Resort on the Gold Coast is not quite as pristine as the baseball field Kevin Costner fashioned from an Iowa corn farm in Field Of Dreams.

It is fenced off, slopes away on one side towards a lake filled with golf balls from an adjoining golf course and the grass is less like a fairway than the rough lining the manicured links.

All three players have returned to Queensland driven by a shared desire, namely to help their respective teams’ pursuit of a premiership. And it is clear they have been working hard.

But the session provided a sense of what football first meant to them when growing up near Geelong, as Ablett did, or in suburban Melbourne and Adelaide for Hannebery and Edwards.

The joy that stems from the simple act of kicking a footy was clear, so too the opportunity to learn something new from rivals they clearly hold in significant esteem.

Hannebery won the Rising Star Award in his second season and is a three-time premiership player. The Coaches Association recognised him as the competition’s best player in 2015.

The youngest of the three at 29, Hannebery’s premiership came with the Swans in 2012.

Edwards, 31, is an All Australian as well.

He holds the record at the Tigers for the most games played by an Indigenous player.

But the opportunity to train alongside the finest player of their generation, a dual-Brownlow Medallist and five-time AFLPA MVP, is something Edwards will treasure forever.

“It is pretty surreal. It is something I will reflect back on at the end of my career and think, ‘What an unbelievable opportunity,’,” he said.

“You know so much about him, but I hadn’t properly met him, but he is just an amazing bloke and I am going to try to learn as much as I can off him.”

Even when beaten, tennis players often speak of their pride at sharing a court with Roger Federer or Serena Williams, of their respect for Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic.

Edwards, who was speaking prior to the strip-club controversy that engulfed two Tigers teammates became public, usually trains alongside another mercurial talent in Dustin Martin.

While a highly respected player in his own right for a champion team, Edwards said there is nothing like having the best seat in the house when a superstar is in full swing.

“From what I have seen of him in our one training session together, they are both pretty clean and they both have pretty good skills. They are both really sharp and really powerful,” he said.

“It is everything you see on the oval (in matches). I was more of a spectator out there, to be honest.”

Edwards returned home to be with his partner Samantha for the birth of their baby girl last month.

But the veteran is confident he will be fit to return for Richmond’s Round 18 clash against Adelaide.

Ablett headed back to Melbourne to support his wife Jordan, whose mother recently died after a long illness. Their son Levi is battling a rare degenerative condition.

Hannebery, meanwhile, required surgery after a hamstring injury but moved freely on Friday, doing additional running after Edwards and Ablett left the session.

The Tiger said the trio had trained hard over the last month and will use the fortnight in quarantine as a tapering period given the facilities at hand.

“I suppose we have had a large training block back home in Melbourne … so we are due for a few lighter sessions and that is how we have planned it,” he said.

“Our training here doesn’t really have to be huge with long runs and kicks, as such. We will use it as a tune-up but also stay sharp with a bit of contested stuff and sharp movements.”