WESTERN Bulldogs coach Rodney Eade believes his side's improvement in 2009 must come from its up-and-coming talent.

The Bulldogs pups, who have been at the club between one and six years, returned to Whitten Oval this week to commence pre-season training under new conditioning coach Bill Davoren.

Eade believes it is this crop of players that will potentially lift the Dogs higher next year.

"I think that's where our improvement has to come from; players that are 26 and under " Eade said on Friday.

"I know Coons [Adam Cooney] has won the Brownlow, but you would like to think his best football is still ahead of him. Ryan Griffen is another we expect to stand up.

"Certainly these players, with nought to 100 games, are the players we're looking to for improvement.

"Everyone talks about the age group of 25 to 28 is your core group of your talent and age group, and there was a generation missing which is starting to push players into that area.

"[Robert] Murphy, [Daniel] Giansiracusa, [Ryan] Hargrave, [Mitch] Hahn … those sort of players are our experienced players now, and hopefully this group underneath them can take the next step."

The players took part in a running and skills session on Friday, which included time trials, sprint work, ball work, and a 'yo-yo' test.

The 'yo-yo' is a variation of the standard beep test, but was described by Eade as "more speed-endurance than just endurance based".

In the time trials, defender Cameron Wight led the pack in group one, while midfielder Dylan Addison was in front in the second.

Eade also mentioned Andrejs Everitt and Shaun Higgins as having returned to training in good shape after the former had a disappointing pre-season last year and the latter a hampered 2008 due to an ankle complaint.

Overall, Eade was satisfied with the low number of players in rehab, considering the state of the Dogs' list two years ago when six players were unable to train before Christmas.

"The guys have presented themselves very well," he said.

"After 2006, we had a lot of operations but we haven't had many this year. Murphy is probably the biggest one and Cooney with his kneecap, but other than that, we're okay."

Eade said the Brownlow medallist would hit the track in a fortnight after surgery to repair his fractured kneecap, but Murphy faced a longer layoff after a more complex operation.

The forward played the final few games of the year with a hole in his patella tendon, the same injury that kept Geelong captain Tom Harley out of the first six rounds of 2006.

"Cooney's prognosis was he'd be able to run after eight weeks post-op, and it's about six now so he'll be able to run soon but he's kept himself in reasonable shape," Eade said.

"Murph will be able to start running in January, so it was a fairly serious operation.

"To his credit, he was able to play at the end of the of the season the way he did, and play that final against Sydney and kick four while playing under pain management.

"The fact he still played didn't change the operation; if we hadn't played him, he still would have had the same operation.

"He's improved on the benchmarks that the doctor had hoped for so far."

Nathan Eagleton and Brian Lake had minor hip operations but will join the group in the next few weeks, while Tom Williams is back running after his end-of season shoulder reconstruction.

Players who have been on the list for seven years and over will begin the same fitness program next week.