To manage the player’s physical workloads in Arizona, and eliminate the possibility of burnout or fatigue, Stephen Schwerdt and the Club’s high performance staff said the playing group would spend Wednesday recovering from the beast that is the 2XU High Performance Camp.

“It can take some time getting use to the adjustment of training at altitude,” conditioning coach Max Kennedy told SUNS TV.

“We had a full day of travel on Sunday and then go struck into it, and so even for established AFL players, it is a fair shock to the body system.”

On the back of Monday’s conditioning session, the main training group were taken through a series of middle distance runs on the synthetic football oval yesterday morning, providing a colourful backdrop to Gary Ablett, Karmichael Hunt, Campbell Brown and Josh Hall’s 2km time trial.

“Yesterday was our first full day of training at the main training facility, and the boys had a bit of a break before doing a bit of heavy cross training in the afternoon, which included a bit of boxing, medicine balls and cable work,” Kennedy said.

In a bid to break up the SUNS’ physical pressures, Kennedy said the boys would make the trek up the mountains for an abseiling tour, which according to the experienced fitness director would also form as part of a team-bonding session for the senior squad.

“Today the boys will get treated, massaged, and have a general medical assessment before heading off for abseiling to reload and relax as a team before getting stuck into another heavy day of training tomorrow.”