It’s been well documented; Port Adelaide is supposedly the fittest team in the competition having won 18 of its 26 final quarters since late 2012.

But is it due to the arrival of fitness manager Darren Burgess or is there another reason the players are able to run out games better than their opposition?

Two recent media interviews suggest it’s as much mental as it is physical.

“I think it’s a bit mentally, we work for each other…most of the boys have been through some pretty hard times together so I think everyone’s learnt to be best mates and when you’re out there, to play together and run for each other and help each other out,” Rising star Ollie Wines told 3AW.

“It’s definitely both physical and mental but definitely not all physical.”

Burgess returned to Alberton from English Premier League team Liverpool and the team has been transformed. The fitness boss has been given the credit, but has distanced himself from any praise saying it’s all ‘smoke and mirrors’.

"You just work the players harder than they think they can and they get through it," Burgess told AFL.com.au.

"We've been able to show them that they're capable of doing more work than they would have thought.

"It's often the belief that once you play a game you need five days to recover because it's such a physical game – but we've been able to convince our players that that's not the case.

"You're able to keep developing your fitness throughout the season."

While Port players described their pre-season camp in Dubai as the hardest thing they had done, the Kangaroos’ players have said similar about Utah.

"We think we're on a three- or four-year plan with this current group and we'll keep pushing," Burgess added.

"How close you can push players to their limits is the art of what we do.

"We don't think we've pushed them too hard yet, but I guess time will tell - we could fade out late in the season.

"One of the things that overrides it all is that we just try and make the pre-season really, really hard so that the in-season bit of it is easy … that's the governing philosophy," he said.