Hawthorn's first-to-four-year players returned to the club last week following their off-season break.

Hawks ruckman Ned Reeves has given us an insight into the start of pre-season training – all from his own perspective.

With a week to go before the pre-season officially kicks off, the off-season programs are finishing up and the excitement and the nerves start to slowly build. Generally, with a week or two to go until day one of pre-season training, there’s two things in players’ minds.

One being the dreaded skinfold test, where no matter how good you think you’ve eaten and trained, the anxiety still kicks into overdrive. Or there’s the time trial, just knowing that you’ve got three sets of 3-4 minutes of pain coming up. You’re just praying that it’s not a 30°C day.

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When halfway through a running session in the middle of October and I’m exhausted and the little man pops into your head telling you to stop, I try to think about how lucky I am that this is my job. But generally, I end up thinking about the time trial. I know in my case and many others the genuine fear of not hitting your time and letting your teammates and coaches down helps you to push on.

For some it’s like Christmas morning when pre-season kicks off and that helps to lift everyone’s energy. We waited to get told whether we're running the time trial or not. The collective sigh was very loud when Boydy (Hawthorn's Physical Performance Manager Luke Boyd) told us that the time trial would happen when everyone’s back in two weeks, leaving only the skinfolds as the hot topic around the club.

For the first two weeks it’s only the first-to-four-year players required at training, but there’s usually a spattering of the older boys who are around and keen to get back into it too.

The boys were introduced to an almost entirely new coaching panel which was exciting for the players considering some of the big names that had been brought in. For me growing up as a North Melbourne supporter, I still haven’t forgiven David Hale for leaving, but I’m very excited to work with him now.

The skills session is always intense and a shock to the system as your body gets to use to the stop, start and contact nature of team training again. At the end of the day you’re exhausted, your muscles are sore and suddenly, your bed seems like the greatest place on earth when you get home.

Every day further into the week you start to feel more comfortable, and the daily routine starts coming back. At the same time though your body gets sorer and sorer until after the Saturday morning running session when you can finally put your feet up.

One week down, three more to go until Christmas break. Many things that you miss during the off-season come flooding back. The competitiveness of everything we do whether it's running, weights or goalkicking and seeing all the boys again. The banter that comes along with it begins to drive you again.

There’s always plenty to look forward to in the four weeks before Christmas, one being welcoming the new draftees to the club. We all vividly remember our first days at the club and its refreshing to see the joy on the guys’ faces when they first walk in and nervously introduce themselves. We try to create a really welcoming space so the new boys feel comfortable expressing themselves before then finding the balance of nurturing and pushing hard.

Day one also marked Sam’s first day as being a head coach and he was clearly excited, and the boys were excited for him too. We're all aware there’s not much we can do to stop all the talking in the media about expectations and what Hawthorn will look like heading forward, but in the background the players are very confident and looking forward to a new era. Especially those boys who had played a lot under Sam at Box Hill who would constantly talk up Sam’s methods to the older boys who hadn’t seen him as much.

The direction that the club is going is very clear, and I believe the younger demographic we have on our list now will thrive and develop really quickly.