SUSPENDED trio Brent Harvey, Campbell Brown and Kurt Tippett face a delicate balancing act as they prepare for delayed starts to the 2013 season, say two former players in the know.

North Melbourne star Harvey and Gold Coast veteran Brown must serve six-match suspensions before they can take the field in the 2013 home-and-away season. Tippett cannot play for his new club, the Sydney Swans, until the second half of the season after his highly publicised 11-match suspension for entering a contract with his former club, Adelaide, that violated the draft and salary cap.

Essendon great Terry Daniher and former Collingwood midfielder Brodie Holland know what it's like to enter a pre-season carrying a hefty suspension that makes playing again seem light years away.

Both Daniher and Holland told AFL.com.au that Harvey, Brown and Tippett will have to walk a physical and mental tightrope as they negotiate their extended 2013 pre-seasons.

Daniher's principal advice to the trio, especially Harvey, 34, and Brown, 29, is not to overdo it.  

He says it can be tempting to add extra running and weights sessions to your training program when you don't have to recover from the weekly knocks and bumps that come with playing.

Daniher admits he was guilty of overwork after being slapped with an 11-match suspension for two striking offences in the Bombers' 1990 Grand Final loss to Collingwood.

Like the 34-year-old Harvey, Daniher was 33 and in the twilight of his career when he embarked on the Bombers' 1991 pre-season.

After his suspension, the 1984-85 premiership captain set himself the goal of returning to Essendon's senior team without playing any lead-up games in the reserves.

To do so, he knew he'd have to be supremely fit - as close to match fitness as he could be without playing a game.

So, unlike Harvey whose off-season break was extended by three weeks when he was excused from North's Utah training camp in November, Daniher started his pre-season at the same time as the rest of his teammates.

Renowned as a hard trainer throughout his 313-game career, Daniher threw himself into that pre-season with his usual fervour.

And when the season started he spent the mornings before Essendon matches running gruelling 200m and 400m repetitions or fartlek sessions.

"I pushed myself as hard as I could in those sessions and went to watch games on a Saturday feeling pretty good about myself, knowing I'd had a good workout in the morning," Daniher said.

Daniher's hard work paid off when he returned to Essendon's senior team as soon as his suspension finished, in round 14 against Fitzroy (the Bombers had byes in rounds one and 12 that season). He did not miss another game for the season.

But although Daniher entered his comeback game with an excellent aerobic base he was hampered by muscle stiffness he blamed on an intensive weights program.

"I was told, 'If you do these heavy weight sessions it will make you stronger'," Daniher said.

"But it ended up giving me a lot of back soreness and hammy tightness, which did affect me on the footy field when I came back.

"It stiffened me up and I really battled, so in the end I think the weights did more damage than good.

"If had my time over again, I would have eased up on that."

Daniher cautions Harvey, Brown and Tippett not to repeat his mistake.

"The big thing will be not to overdo it and to try to keep themselves fresh," Daniher says.

"I know Brent is a very professional worker and doesn't baulk at a little bit of hard work. But that's got to be monitored and, especially at 35, the focus has to be on quality work, not quantity."

Holland had to serve a six-match suspension at the start of the 2007 season after his big bump on Brent Montgomery in the Magpies' 2006 elimination final loss to the Western Bulldogs.

Unlike Harvey, Brown and Tippett, he was given most of that pre-season off to rest a troublesome right achilles tendon, only resuming training in March.

When he was back on the track, Holland, then 27, tried to train at a higher intensity than any other Magpie, to show his teammates and the Collingwood coaching staff he was hell-bent on making up for his suspension.

But from the time the pre-season competition started, Holland said not being part of the Magpies' pre-match meetings, which were generally only attended by the selected squad, made him feel like an outsider.

Given his experience, Holland believes Harvey and Brown should play in the NAB Cup - Tippett's suspension includes pre-season games - saying it will improve their fitness, touch and familiarity with ever-evolving game plans. Perhaps more importantly, Holland says giving the pair a taste of games will help them maintain their training intensity when the home-and-away season starts.

Harvey and Brown seem set to take Holland's advice. Harvey recently said he wanted to play in all of North's NAB Cup games, while the Suns told AFL.com.au Brown was likely to play most of their pre-season games.

Once the 2013 home and away season begins, Holland says Harvey, Brown and Tippett should try not to focus solely on training.

"I would be inclined to go to the coach in the second or third week and say, 'Can I just come in to the team meetings for a listen? I just want to make sure that I'm staying involved as much as possible'," Holland said.

"That's one thing I didn't do that I wish I had done. It's important just to stay in the clique and be thinking about what the team's doing gameplan-wise. Is there anything that's changed? What's the coach's philosophy this time around?

"If you can get a handle on things you won't be thrown in at round seven or eight and be trying to take in too much at once."

Like Daniher, Holland stepped straight back into Collingwood's team when his suspension was over, in round seven, 2007, against Carlton.

When he did so, he says felt fit and picked up the tempo of the game soon enough. He expects Harvey, Brown and Tippett will take no more than a game or two to do the same.

Unfortunately, Holland's achilles soreness resurfaced soon after his return and after seven straight games he could not play on. He did not return for the rest of the season and, after post-season surgery, would play just one game the following season before retiring at 28, after 155 games.

But Holland is confident Harvey, Brown and Tippett's returns will be more successful. In fact, he thinks playing a reduced 2013 season will mean all three, particularly Brown and Harvey, run out the year more strongly.

"You saw with Darren Jolly last year at Collingwood when you get to that age (30) clubs don't want you to play all 22 games. They want you to be out there playing your best in 15 games," Holland said.

"In this day and age, it's about timing your run so you're cherry ripe for the finals.

"So I think for these guys this season should really be tailor-made for them."

Nick Bowen is a reporter with AFL.com.au. Follow him on Twitter: @AFL_Nick