NEW DECADE, same workload for the Melbourne boys.
The Demons took to the Tan on Friday morning for their first time trial of the year, and while it was a tough grind, Angus Brayshaw was happy to be back.
“It’s always a bit of a build up to the 3km,” he told Melbourne Media.
“We’ve got our fitness guy Burgo (Darren Burgess) who makes sure we know it’s really important to go out and have a real crack.
“It was good – we saw a lot of guys run better times than their first day of pre-season.
“It was nice and warm and all the boys love it.”
There were no surprises as Alex Neal-Bullen was first to cross the finish line, with Toby Bedford and Corey Wagner rounding out the top three.
But Brayshaw said the whole group is looking in good shape, performing well in testing circumstances.
“I don’t know how many times people have run around the Tan, but there’s two hills,” he said.
“There’s a long 3km one that we run up, so it’s a big challenge, but then again, it’s nice to break it up.
“Instead of just running around Gosch’s all day, it’s good to get some change and some different sort of stuff to face.”
Brayshaw is no stranger to running hard for extended periods of time, with a family Christmas tradition preparing him for Friday’s gruelling session.
“I ran 100-hundreds [on] Christmas and we did 100-hundreds last day of pre-season, so I got double dose this year,” he said.
“But it was good to do it over in Perth.
“It was a bit warmer in Perth, so coming back here is actually nice and refreshing which is funny.”
The 24-year-old midfielder enjoyed the chance to get away over the players’ well-earned break, completing the training program with his brothers by his side.
“It’s not as much time off the training stuff, but just to get away from the club and catch up with family and friends is really good for me,” Brayshaw said.
“I’ve got all my family in Perth – my brothers live over there – so we got back and swam in the beach. The Perth beaches are a nice change up to Melbourne beaches.
“So it was good to get away and have a bit of a break, but also really good to be back and getting stuck into it in the lead up to Round 1.”
