CYRIL Rioli's exceptional first pre-season will be used as inspiration for Hawthorn's draftees as they commence their careers at the elite level, says head fitness coach Andrew Russell.

Rioli was selected by the Hawks with pick No. 12 in the 2007 NAB AFL Draft and impressed upon his arrival at Waverley, before embarking on a season that saw him play all 25 games and have an important role in the grand final win over Geelong.

"He covered 90 per cent of the pre-season which is a very high volume of work for a first-year player," Russell said.

"Nobody that I worked with in the last four years at Hawthorn did that much in their first pre-season. Grant Birchall came very close though.

"If you have role models like Cyril at the club then you have to use that to educate other players who come into the system."

And Rioli never asked fitness staff to lessen his workload, persevering with a gruelling year on the track.

"Not once did he say to me that he needed to be pulled back," Russell said. "But then I’ve never had a young player come and say that.

"You need to educate them to get to that point where they can trust you … then you end up pulling them back in some capacity of their training."

Hawthorn added five players to its list on Saturday – Ryan Schoenmakers, Liam Shiels, Jordan Lisle, Luke Lowden and Shane Savage – and Russell said that they wouldn't all be expected to use Rioli's intensity as a blueprint.

"Every player is different," he said. "Some players can handle 90 per cent, others can only handle 50 per cent.

"We don’t put limitations on our players. We just take them at face value and analyse where their body is at and what they are psychologically capable of.

"I don’t explain how tough it is going to be. You let them experience that themselves. If you actually put it into their head how tough it’s going to be then it will be tough because that’s their expectation."