McLean gets smart to reach peak fitness

BROCK McLean knows most players feel their best at this time of the season. The games are months away and last year's injuries are gone but after three pre-seasons of working his body into the ground, the 21-year-old is happy to feel great.

Hampered by nagging soft-tissue injuries in other seasons and having spent the first half of last year on the sidelines with a broken foot, McLean has learnt a valuable lesson. Even at 21, you need to listen to your body.

"It's probably the best shape that I have come back to a pre-season in and that has allowed me to start going pretty solid from day one," McLean said.

As the midfielder sets about preparing for his fourth season in the AFL, he now understands his body better. Working with the Melbourne fitness staff led by Bohdan Babijczuk, McLean says he has got a lot smarter about getting fitter.

"It has been the first time that I have started to listen to my body and not tried to go hell for leather every session, which has been a weakness of mine to want to go out there and go hell for leather every session and it has caused injuries and breakdowns."

Still left with a "bitter taste in the mouth" after last year's disastrous season, the Demons have hit the ground running. It is a different summer preparation for the club, with new coach Dean Bailey changing much about pre-season training.

"We have been doing a lot of game-style training early on. We are doing a lot of running and been in the gym but the big difference is that we are doing handball games already," said McLean.

A focus of the new coach is the Demons' running and handball game and the team has gone back to scratch redeveloping that area of their game.

"A new coach puts everyone on a level playing field and everybody is out to prove a point to the coach on what they are about, what sort of player they are, what sort of person they are, everybody has to prove themselves again and I think that is good for everyone. It gets everyone out of their comfort zone," McLean said.

The Demons were certainly out of their comfort zone early yesterday morning, with the players hard at work climbing the hills of Churchill National Park in Rowville.

It has become a summer ritual for the team, with the players making the trek over the past month and set to continue the run every Saturday morning until Christmas.

The players run between 12 to 14 kilometres in the hour-long session and McLean says the results are already showing.

"You can see improvements already in the boys' fitness," he said. "Already I can see benefits from doing these sessions."

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