With the AFLW pre-season now underway, Women's Physical Performance Manager, Matt Parker, spoke to Richmond Media about what's in store.

First week back out on the track

"It's been really good. It's awesome to get back to the club, especially in these times, it's so good to connect back with the group, the players have missed the place."

Players returning fit and firing

"I can't credit the girls enough for the work they do through the off-season. AFLW is very unique in that aspect with such a long off-season, so the way the girls have approached it, every year they build upon that really well. So, really pleased to see how they've returned."

Main focus for the pre-season

"Continuing to build on Ferg and his approaches from last year. Year on year, we've tried to add some layers and build upon our foundations. So, continuing to push the training intensity and the standards that we set ourselves. It's pleasing to see that that's come a long way from last year already."

First few weeks of the pre-season

"We were lucky enough to have a bit of a 'pre-pre-season' period where we were able to build a little bit of that foundational load. So we're back into most things pretty quickly. Training has ramped up fairly quickly, we're still setting that foundation, but it's pleasing to see (the players) getting back to some quality ball work and some good competitive drills."

Impressive results in the six-minute run test

"Oustanding results. Going back to the way (the players) approached the off-season, it has clearly shown with some of those results. It was pleasing to see the older players that could easily float between off-seasons, they've really put the work in and come back with some outstanding results."

Mon Conti's first full pre-season

"Mon's always been fairly unique with sharing her basketball commitments, so we're really fortunate as a group to have Mon on board for our pre-season, and she's so excited to see the growth that she can build out of this phase. She's one of the most untapped talents from a pure athlete development point of view. I'm super excited to see how she grows across this period, and just having her around the group more has been so exciting as she's such a good influence to others."

Navigating the Christmas break

"The AFLW competition has always thrown up surprises. It's a bit of new thing to navigate in terms of our Christmas break, we have a mandatory seven-day break over Christmas, but knowing that once we return, we could be playing our first game within 10-12 days. So, there's a bit of work to do over the next few weeks to really build that load. We'll transition to our in-season period from December with practice matches, but building that tolerance and that overall training intensity is going to be really important over the next couple of months."