JACK Newnes' progression into one of St Kilda's key midfielders took another step on Monday morning when he took out the club's first time trial of the pre-season.
Newnes was the best performed runner in a field of first to fourth-year players, who ran a 3km time trial around Albert Park Lake before a second 2km time trial was sprung on them.
The wingman finished ahead of midfielder Seb Ross and third-placed Josh Saunders, who is training with the Saints in the hope of being redrafted after being delisted at the end of October.
Midfielders Blake Acres and Eli Templeton rounded out the top five, followed by Jack Lonie, Nathan Wright, Jack Sinclair, Darren Minchington and Josh Bruce.
After developing as a half-back in his first two seasons, Newnes has established himself on a wing and is slowly adding the size required to become an inside midfielder when required.
The durable Saint, who has not missed a game in the past two seasons, lifted his average clearances (2.05) and contested possessions (6.73) to career highs in 2015.
Monday's gruelling double time trial was a surprise prepared for the players by new high performance manager Matt Hornsby, who told the players to go out as hard as they could and hang on.
The rehab group included recruit Nathan Freeman and young star Jack Billings, who worked on a program of bikes, rowing and boxing.
Versatile tall Tom Lee, midfielder Luke Dunstan and second-year midfielder Daniel McKenzie were also kept to light duties.
Assistant coach Adam Kingsley said the majority of the first to fourth-year group had returned in top condition, which was important as the club builds its climb up the ladder around its core group of youngsters.
"The guys have had their break, they've had around six or seven weeks off, and we've been doing a lot of planning and preparation in that time," Kingsley said.
"They've been working hard and I'm sure we'll see that in their time trial.
"It is really important they do look after themselves in their break, you don't want to start from too far back.
"It looks like they've done that so we're pretty happy."
