PORT Adelaide high performance manager Darren Burgess is renowned as one of the best in his role in the AFL, with the Power players' fitness and stamina lauded in recent seasons.
In 2014, Port proved to be the best last-quarter team in the League, highlighting their ability to run out matches.
Speaking on Melbourne radio station SEN on Friday morning, Burgess gave an insight into his fitness and training philosophies.
Burgess on heat training/the club's Dubai camp
"We take our guys to Dubai for a week to 10 days and that exposes them to a fairly large amount of heat, but it also exposes them to a large amount of training as well.
"It's a dual benefit thing. The heat's really good and it helps with a few (training) adaptation things, but they also get to play a lot of footy and they get to bond really well."
Burgess on the delicate balance of pushing players to the limit, but not breaking point
"We think we're pushing them pretty hard.
"You monitor them with all kinds of variables. Every session they are wearing GPS and heart rate monitors (and) they've got to fill out (wellness) questionnaires to tell us how they're feeling.
"We'd like to think we know when guys are getting to breaking point – and that's the art behind it. We're certainly pushing them and I think that's the way to go. You need to take players right to the edge."
The concept of 'heavy training phases'
"I don't know how accurate that is. You can chip away at individuals at certain times, but it's pretty risky to do it with a whole team."
Peaking at the right times of the season
"That's the challenge. That's the art, and the science of it is trying to get them up for March and then trying to maintain that through (the season).
"That's where squad rotation can help. When you do have six- and eight-day breaks, you need to manipulate the training loads."
Brad Ebert recovers after a run at training. Picture: Getty Images
Keeping training fresh
"You can change up the location of your training. You can change up the days that you train and the days that you give them off."
Planning for the season ahead
"I only look at the fixtures for eight-day and nine-day breaks where you can perhaps get a little bit of extra training into the guys.
"I don't know how intelligent it is to look at the fixture and say 'We're playing whoever we're playing this week, so we'll probably get a win there, therefore we can train the guys a little bit harder.'
"I just don't think you can do that at any stage, unless maybe you're four wins clear at the top of the League.
The fitness demand on modern players
"The nature of the positions has changed and with the (interchange) rotations the average time a midfielder might be on the ground at any one time is eight or nine minutes.
"That just wouldn't have happened eight years ago, let alone 20 or 30 years ago.
"We've got GPS devices so we know exactly what the players do on game day and then we can try to replicate that in training."
The general health of Port Adelaide's list
"We had Jackson Trengove go in for a bit of a shoulder tidy up, which was a bit unfortunate in terms of the timing.
"Other than that we've got a full list training."
