PORT ADELAIDE recruit Paddy Ryder has been challenged to take his fitness to a new level in 2015 after joining his teammates at the Power's training camp in Dubai.
In what new assistant coach Michael Voss described as possibly the hardest pre-season camp he's seen, Ryder has adjusted to the summer demands that have made the Power arguably the best running team in the League.
Voss said he had been impressed by the former Essendon ruckman's no-fuss attitude while training at Dubai's Nad Al Sheda Sports Complex.
"Even he would say this camp's been a bit of an eye-opener for him," Voss told SEN on Thursday morning.
"He realises that he can get better as an individual and he's mixed in with the guys fantastically well.
"I've had a chance to have a couple of good chats with him and he seems in a really good headspace.
"We hope that really transfers into his football next year and he can bring that new level of fitness that we hope to get into him, in a group that can hopefully get to the next level."
Voss, who joined Port Adelaide as midfield manager in October, said the Dubai training camp was largely physical and designed to get the players fitter, but there were still opportunities for ball work.
In an ominous sign for the rest of the competition, he said fitness guru Darren Burgess was seeking to push the boundaries of what AFL players can achieve athletically.
"I've got to say, being four or five days into this program now, if this isn't the hardest camp I've seen, it'd go very, very close," Voss said.
"Darren Burgess has just suggested that perhaps as AFL footballers, we can go to another level.
"We haven't had a lot of time up to Christmas to get them up to pace, so this becomes pretty critical in the whole program.
"Mixed in with all the running, the weights, the recovery, it's quite amazing that we fit a football session in between all that."
