During the Christmas/New Year break, AFL.com.au looks at each club and how they're tracking for the 2011 pre-season.

Introduction
The younger players who didn't train during the finals returned on October 24 and were joined by captain Nick Maxwell, who elected to start his pre-season early after several injury frustrations in 2011 (internal bleeding at the start and a broken thumb at the end). The rest of the group reappeared on November 21, which gave them one day at the club before they embarked on their annual pre-season altitude training camp to Arizona, which ended on December 10. The travelling party then had some time off and was back into it with a week leading into their break. 

Medical room
The Magpies are looking to have all players involved in full training when the group resumes after Christmas. Cameron Wood (shoulder), Nathan Brown (knee) and Luke Rounds (groin) were on restricted duties in the lead-up to the break but were on the verge of stepping things up. Andrew Krakouer, Jon Ceglar and Lachlan Keeffe were others who didn't travel to the US with the former faced with visa issues and the latter two told to pump iron in the gym - they trained under the supervision of some of the club's conditioning staff and VFL and development coach Tarkyn Lockyer while the others were away. Darren Jolly (groin) and Chris Dawes (ankle) are also travelling well.

Summer superstar 
Scott Pendlebury led from the front in Arizona and tackled the difficult training with enthusiasm and determination, while veteran Ben Johnson impressed in his 13th AFL pre-season. Marty Clarke presented with a stronger physique than he had when he was last a Magpie and showed his endurance hasn't suffered despite two seasons out of the game, while Peter Yagmoor - who came to the club in the trade period after being pre-listed by Gold Coast - worked hard and caught the eye.

Draftee watch
Jamie Elliot and Yagmoor impressed early on with their sharpness and speed, and, along with teenage giant Jarrod Witts, performed well in Arizona. New draftees Corey Gault and Jackson Paine didn't travel to the US as the camp commenced before the November NAB AFL Draft, but none of the Pies' new players have arrived with any injury concerns and all are training well.

Putting the feet up
The players will break from December 23 and regroup on January 9. With the altitude trip behind them - which Pendlebury recently described as the toughest one yet - there are no plans for any other forays away from the club. Although the footballs have been out on the track more so this pre-season than in years gone by, the past month and a half has been mainly about conditioning with the club expected to focus more on its game plan and tactics in the New Year. Coach Nathan Buckley has already promised the alterations will be minor and there is no need for a complete overhaul of the way they play.

Membership
Pre-Christmas, the Pies' membership figure was 49,334 and tracking well. The number is around 9000 more than they had on their books this time last December. Last year's 'March to October' campaign has been replaced by 'It's Us Against Them', which saw a television commercial filmed in the week before Christmas over a five-hour period at Gosch's Paddock. It is expected to air in early 2012.

NAB Cup schedule:
Round one (Saturday, February 18): v GWS Giants and Western Bulldogs, Blacktown International Sportspark
Round two (Saturday, March 3): v Melbourne, Etihad Stadium
Round three (Friday, March 9): v Adelaide, AAMI Stadium

What they say
"Obviously it's not 'Bucks' by himself, it's the whole football club and all the players have made it a good transition. I suppose with pre-season it's still a lot of conditioning work getting done so we've really just been drip-fed the footy stuff that he wants to implement. Every player on the list got challenged [in Arizona]. It's something you need to do. You need to find a new way to get better and I think we certainly pushed the boundaries this year. It gets harder every time." - vice captain Scott Pendlebury.

The views in this article are those of the author and not necessarily those of the AFL or its clubs