Hird Astounds Fitness Staff

Just when you thought he couldn’t get any fitter, couldn’t drive his body any harder, Essendon captain James Hird comes out and runs a personal best time for a 3.2km time trial around Princes Park. Hird astounded Essendon fitness staff earlier this week running a 15-second personal best and in the process made a mockery of those who think physically, we have seen the best of the Essendon champion.

"Right now he is as good - if not better - than he has ever been and the trip to Ireland with the Australian team hasn’t had any adverse effect on his preparation for the upcoming season," Essendon fitness coach John Quinn said. "He has not missed a session during the pre-season and has done everything asked of him. He is training like a new recruit."

But Hird isn’t the only Bomber flying with more than half the group running personal best times in the post-Xmas time trial.
"Kepler Bradley did a 34-second personal best for the 3.2km time trial which is fantastic. Ted Richards beat his best time by 45 seconds and was just a few seconds behind Mark Bolton who is generally the benchmark for us," Quinn said.

"Matthew Lloyd broke 11 minutes for the time trial for the first time ever which is a great result for someone of his shape and size – I can’t imagine any other full forward now or prior who could run around Princes Park in sub 11 minutes."

Quinn said the players had been asked to come back with improved skinfold measurements off the Christmas break and that all bar two players had done just that.
"Jay Nash improved his skinfolds by 15% which is a terrific effort and not surprisingly he reaped the benefits of that in our testing. He ran a personal best by 15 seconds for the 3.2km time trial, he did personal best for the 5m, 10m and 20m sprints – all three times the best of anyone at the club – and he also did a personal best in the beep test – he is in great condition."