There will be little reprieve for the Western Bulldogs playing group after returning to Whitten Oval this morning, with training expected to ramp up before the end of the week.

After completing a solid running session on their first day back, assistant coach Rohan Smith said the players should prepare for a hard slog over the next six weeks as NAB Cup preparations intensify.

“The next six week period is really focused on just how we want to play and getting them match hardened and ready to play a game of footy,” Smith said.

“They have done all the fitness work before Christmas but now they are starting to ramp up the footy program, starting to ramp up the contested ball, the structures, the way we want to play - because really it is only 40 days until we start playing games.

Smith was impressed with the form of the players on return and the standards exhibited in this morning’s session, believing the professionalism across the group was clearly on display over the Christmas break.

“I think the boys are pretty professional now, they go away on a two week break but they know what to do. They have been given their programs over the period of the Christmas break and the players would have done it to a tee,” he said.

“They have done all their running, all their kicking – all the boys took away a footy, it was compulsory for them to take away a footy and make sure they kicked their legs in still.

“The boys rocked up to training really raring to go today – it was actually quite good, a little bit warm out there so it was good to train in sunshine with no wind.”

While the players were told to stay away from Whitten Oval over the break, the prescribed fitness programs were still largely demanding.

“They still have their running to do their weights to do, their skill work as well to do - so it is still a full on program, just not having the structure to come into the Club to do it at set times,” he said.

“The way they came back today you could see there was still a fairly substantial program they did over the Christmas break.”

Newly appointed High Performance Manager Graham Lowe’s fitness program over the entire pre-season has also been praised by Smith.

“Graham has been really good – he’s been great… [a] different voice, different face obviously, different ways to go about training,” Smith said.

“The training structures… [are] very based on the GPS data that they are getting first hand from the training sessions and having a look at physically how much they are doing during the training session.

“[Lowe] might have a plan that he wants them to get through seven or eight km’s during the training drills and also the running and he will stick to that to a tee.”