WEST Coast defender Reuben Ginbey has hit back at criticism of his team's training standards, declaring he could not be prouder of the way his young teammates performed in Monday's gruelling time trial and he wants to see them "run until they drop". 

The Eagles welcomed their first-to-fourth-year players back to pre-season on Monday with a running test involving 11 sprints over 200m, with the young group collapsing on the turf momentarily after the final effort.  

Retired Brownlow medallist Tom Mitchell said that moment was "embarrassing" for the group and displayed "serious mental weakness", arguing that teams he played with had rules about not showing weakness in similar situations. 

Ginbey, who is part of the Eagles' leadership group and had himself ended up on his hands and knees after the punishing test, had a different view and said the aftermath had shown the players ran until they couldn't stand. 

"I couldn't be more proud of the boys. Most people in their life have never run until they can't stand or spew, but this is a time trial (and) you only do two a year," Ginbey said on Wednesday.  

"The pressure you put on yourselves is what we love. It's an elite environment, and I want to see the boys run until they drop. 

"Tom Mitchell had his view, and he's well and truly got the right to have his opinion as a very decorated player. 

"The way we're looking at it, we thought the boys had a great crack, and the quality of training afterwards – which is more important – was awesome as well. 

"I'm stoked with how the young boys have come back fit and firing and putting pressure on the older boys to see what they can do in two weeks as well."

Ginbey said the young Eagles had made a commitment in the off-season to train as a large group through October, getting good numbers to hill running sessions at Kings Park. 

A group of eight young stars, including Ginbey, Harley Reid and Willem Duursma, also spent a week last month at the UFC Performance Institute in Las Vegas alongside high-performance boss Phil Merriman to maximise their off-season. 

"That was a great week. We had eight of our younger boys along with a couple of coaches and it was a good little refresh after a long off-season of training here," Ginbey said.  

"We learned a lot, and the facilities they have over there and the testing with the VO2 and that kind of thing, it's all just different.

"As your career goes, you can learn what you like and what you don't like, and it was a good bonding experience as well. 

"They're the guys that are going to drive the club back to where we want to be, so we had a great week."

Ginbey highlighted Duursma as a player who had impressed over the off-season with his physical development, returning this week with added size and strength, while winger Sam Allen had won the team's running test as he prepares to return from an ACL injury. 

"He's an absolute animal," Ginbey said of Allen, who was drafted with pick No.29 last year. 

"He's built different and he won our running test the other day, so that was great to see. 

"Doing your knee in your first year is super tough, but his resilience through rehab is only going to benefit him in the future.

"Big Archer Reid has also come back really well. We did some marking today and he's looking super strong. 

"Seeing him back is going to be really great as well for our young forward line along with Jobe (Shanahan) and Jake (Waterman)."

Co-captain Liam Baker returned to training with the Eagles' young group on Wednesday, with veteran recruit Jack Viney also making an early start to his first pre-season with the Eagles on Monday. 

Ginbey is entering his fifth season and was also keen to get back into training from day one after suffering a season-ending quad injury in round 13 last season.  

The 22-year-old said it was a wise decision in hindsight to hold him back from playing at the end of last season and he was focused this summer on preparing to play the type of football that made him an All-Australian contender before his injury. 

"The quad's feeling good. I won't be in everything before Christmas, just to look after myself a bit more," Ginbey said. 

"I've got a few years under my belt, but I'm going to be in as much as I can.

"I wasn't even able to get in the kicking lane at the back end of the year for the last 12 weeks, so just having a kick out there with the boys has been great fun. 

"I can't wait to get into a bit of contest stuff as well. We were doing a bit of marking this morning with a few of the big boys, and it's going to take a bit of time to find my feet again."

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