Vice-captain Drew Petrie says the Roos must make the most of the next two-weeks in order to take full advantage of their third high altitude training camp.

“I think the next week’s where we excel, we don’t take it easy at all because it’s about capitalising on what we did over in Utah,” he told kangaroos.com.au.

“While we’re in this hard training phase, they’ll flog us for the next two weeks leading into Christmas, so to make a bit of space for some Chrissy pudding,” he joked.

After his second camp, Petrie believes the benefits of the trip are certainly noticeable and will have an impact on the Kangaroos in the coming season.

“…it’s paying dividends in how we’re training at the moment so we’ve got to make sure that relates to winning games throughout the season and making finals again.”

There hasn’t been any time to rest for the players on their return from Utah as they made their way out for the first training session back in Melbourne today.

“I got back (to Melbourne) on Thursday, the rest of the boys got back Saturday so I think they were still a bit sluggish today,” Petrie said.

“I felt okay but we haven’t trained outdoors for a few weeks after we had the luxury of being indoors over at the big universities in Utah. Our skills were a bit ordinary today as it was pretty windy out at Craigieburn but our running sessions were really good.”

After an intensive three weeks of training it’s straight back into routine and the focus will remain similar to overseas.

“There was more emphasis on skills this year so we probably didn’t do as many kilometres running-wise but the sessions we did were just as hard. There’s never an easy session, it’s never an easy camp.

“This year was a bit more skill based, the first two were big on fitness and this one was still big on fitness but a lot more skills.”