ARRIVING for the first day ofpre-season can be a nervous time for any player.

Coaches and football managers can also be excused for beinga little anxious as they wait for their stars to stroll, and hopefully notroll, back through the club doors to commence training.

But there’s one player at the Western Bulldogs that head of physical performance CameronFalloon need not spend a moment of his down-time worrying about.

Falloon isused to seeing Daniel Cross cut a lean figure when he walks into Whitten Ovalfollowing his mandatory lay-off at season’s end.

And thecourageous Bulldog looked in fine fettle when he fronted the Bulldogs’ leadgroup in the majority of their six one-km time trials at Aberfeldie on Thursdaymorning.

“Crossy is exceptional,” Falloon said after thegruelling session.

“He is justthe epitome of professional. He followed his off-season program to a tee; hehad specific areas we wanted to work on with him that he's deficient in, andhe's done that.

“He's seeing the results. It's a just rewardfor someone who works extremely hard.”

While allthe Bulldogs have come back in good shape for this summer’s pre-season campaign,Cross – in his third week back on the training track – was a clear standoutduring Thursday’s tortuous run.

Yet theball magnet barely seemed out of breath upon completing each circuit, and laterexplained how he managed to keep his condition during his time off.

“Over the off-season, you don’treally have much of a break,” he said.

“You have a couple of weeks off, and you’ve got to have arest because it’s a massive year and you’re training 50 weeks of the yearpretty much.

“So for two weeks I’m doing just about nothing, maybe takingthe dog for a walk or something.

“Then for six weeks you sort of build yourself up to thestart of when you come back and then it’s red-hot from there (and) you’re justgoing flat-out.”

Cross believes while sessions such as those on Thursday weretough, worse may lie ahead for he and his teammates.

“This is the most volume ofrunning that we’ll do,” he said.

“But I think the toughest part of pre-season is probablywhen you come back from Christmas and you start the physical stuff, thecontact, start match practice and you’re still doing the gut running as well.

“That period’s probably the hardest but this part is whereyou get all your volume of your running and you’re doing all your weights andyou’re just loading up on pretty much everything.”