COLLINGWOOD captain Nick Maxwell says his decision to start pre-season three weeks early is already paying dividends with his fitness, and is helping him deal with the Magpies' Grand Final loss.

Maxwell, 28, elected to cut his break short and return to the club at the start of November, as opposed to this week when his contemporaries resumed training.

Maxwell had the plates and screws from his broken right thumb removed and then began training with the club's younger players and is now bound for Arizona on the Pies' sixth pre-season altitude camp.

"Physically I feel as good as I've felt for a couple of years, so starting early has really given me a kickstart into the pre-season," Maxwell said on Tuesday at Melbourne Airport.

"I just wanted to come back early because of the burn of what happened last year, and because the year I had personally - I was injured for most of the year.

"I just wanted to get back into it as quick as I could.

"With the new coach and a bunch of new coaches, I just wanted to start chatting to them and hear what they wanted to implement moving forward, and also with all our young guys, I wanted to get in there and give them a bit of a kick in the backside and get them moving.

"I've been really impressed in the last month."

Maxwell said he wasn't the only one who had a strong desire to rebound from the 38-point Grand Final loss to Geelong with an explosive summer.

He said Brownlow medallist Dane Swan, who holidayed in South America with teammates including Chris Tarrant, had wanted to run each day on his trip while the bulk of the players, including Darren Jolly and Alan Didak, were determined to put the injury-affected year behind them.

"Guys coming back have probably done more than what they have in the past, and I think they've had that mental refreshment they wanted but physically they're in good shape, which is satisfying for us as leaders at the club," he said.

"People often talk about the pain of losing one is quite often double the joy of winning one, if that makes sense.

"For me, it was pretty disappointing with the way it ended.

"Leigh Brown and Leon Davis have moved on but apart from that, we've kept everyone together, we've got a lot of young guys coming through that we're impressed with and we think they can have a real impact in 2012."

The Pies have a new-look coaching squad, with Nathan Buckley taking on the senior role and Rodney Eade (football and coaching strategist), Robert Harvey (midfield coach), Ben Hart (defensive coach), Mitch Hahn (offensive development coach) and Dale Tapping (midfield development coach) arriving during the off-season.

Maxwell said the arduous 16-day Arizona trip was a good forum for the players and coaches to get to know each other.

He also said there was no doubt the Pies' use of altitude training, which started in 2005, gave them an edge when it came to fitness.

"At the start people were laughing at us and thought we were stupid and had too much money, but now everyone seems to be doing it and following the trail that we blazed," he said.

"It took us a long time to work out exactly how to do it, a few years to really get the optimum out of it, but the way we supplement with the altitude room back at the club is the way that makes it really work.

"Usually we're not [looking forward to it] but for some reason everyone seems to be up and about and looking forward to it.

"Everyone's got different reasons why they want to keep getting better."

VFL and development coach Tarkyn Lockyer has stayed behind with players such as Nathan Brown, who is recovering from knee surgery, and Andrew Krakouer, who faces visa problems with the US following his criminal conviction.

The Pies will select two players in Thursday night's NAB AFL Draft and will use their third pick, No.67, to officially recruit giant teenager Jarrod Witts, who they have a hold on through the NSW scholarship program.

Witts has made the trip to Arizona but the other two recruits will remain behind in Melbourne with Lockyer. 

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