High Performance Manager Ben Serpell gives a Pre-Season high performance update ahead of the Christmas break.

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With a month of Pre-Season officially done and dusted, Serpell delved into updates surrounding the recent Bronco Run, load management and return-to-play expectations.

"We set the guys a challenging task in the off-season, to get a bit of training done. They trained hard," Serpell told Richmond Media at the end of week four of Pre-Season.

"We ran a Bronco run two weeks ago, when the senior guys came back. Everyone came back in a better position than they were this time last year, with a lot of PBs.

"And the simple fact is, we've got 30 per cent more of the guys training out on the park training at the moment

"It's a very good position to be in, and it's giving us the opportunity to do more football."

Serpell explained the importance of completing a new running test, with the Club opting to move from the 2km time trail to the Bronco this summer.

"The Bronco is a shuttle-based test. They run out, 20 metres and back, 40 metres, 60 metres. They do that five times," he explained.

"We choose to do that, as we feel that's more relevant to football, rather than a slow and steady 2km time trial.

"Football, as you see, is a lot of change of direction, so we like to test that as well.

"The boys came back in really good shape, so we want to get more footy into them. Between now and Christmas, we will get some big sessions in, get close to game load and doing as much football as possible."

Sam Lalor - Hamstring:

"Sammy is doing quite well, he's four months post-surgery. If he's in-season, he's probably playing right now, but we have an opportunity now to manage his loads for the next little while, and make sure that we cruise him through to January," Serpell said.

"He's getting more and more football done. He ran 11 kilometres of footy (on Friday), and said he hasn't been able to do that since this time last year.

Nick Vlastuin - Foot:

"Nick Vlastuin is doing well. He is back running. He was probably OK to start running a couple of weeks ago, but we wanted to give him a bit of downtime with his new baby coming along," he said.

"So, he started running this week."

Josh Smillie - Quad:

"Josh is a couple of weeks post surgery now and feeling really good. He is due to return running right in the middle of our Christmas break," Serpell said.

"So we will do some preparatory work with him before we go away and we will give him a delayed return-to-run, so he's in a good position come end of January - early February."

Tom Sims - Ankle:

"Simsy is doing well. He underwent navicular stress fracture surgery at the end of last season after he also injured his elbow," he said.

"The elbow is all clear and the ankle is doing quite well now. So we expect him to do more running early next year. He'll be touch-and-go for Round 1, but is progressing well."

Load Management:

"We like to look after some of our older guys at this time of year. Tom Lynch, Toby Nankervis, Jacob Hopper, Tim Taranto and Dion Prestia," Serpell said.

"We tend to make sure they're not dong too much at this time of year, to get them through to January and get a lot of training done there.

"The reality is, Lynch has done more training this Pre-Season, than he has the last two years, and the same with Dion.

"We'll keep looking after them for a while and see them have more time on the track in early January."