Long gone are the days where players are excused for coming back from holidays in poor shape and Saunders says the fitness and coaching staff have been extremely pleased with the current crops attitude.
“The boys across the board have responded really well and have taken up the challenge so to date, we’re really happy with how they’ve presented,” Saunders said.
“It’s really important for the boys. This is where our first to four year players come back in and I have to say, they all do a really good job of returning to training from their break ready to train from the get-go.”
The next group of players to hit the track include the likes of Todd Goldstein, Scott Thompson, Lachlan Hansen, Nathan Grima and Leigh Adams. They too, will be put under the microscope.
“They’re all on maintenance programs while they’re on holidays. It’s important to make sure that they’re rested and refreshed, they’re not de-conditioned at all. They’ve got to be ready to train,” Saunders told kangaroos.com.au.
“It’s a really important two and half week block where they can get right into training at an intense level in all the areas; skills, conditioning, weights and injury prevention. We really don’t progress them into pre-season training slowly, we expect them to turn up ready to go so they can get a really solid base into them.
“The training loads are progressed slightly but from the first session it was pretty solid. They’re very big days.”
Saunders says bringing back the younger players earlier than the others is crucial.
“It’s too important for them, the period of time, to catch up on the years of conditioning that the five to seven year players have under their belts.”
Unfortunately for Saunders, he didn’t come back in peak condition.
An incident while on holiday with his family in Bali has prevented him from being able to wear shoes. It forced him to go bare-foot on the oval.
“I had a little bit of a tangle with a motorbike in Bali,” he explained.
“I was walking down a backstreet in Seminyak and was taken out by a motorbike that was coming out of a side-street. I had a little bit of a wound that I needed to look after for a day or two in Bali but when I got back home, I went straight to the Epworth hospital.
“I’m still shoeless which I don’t mind, but I’ll be that way for the week I reckon.”
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