MELBOURNE has employed the services of a ballet physiotherapist to help with the management and prevention of foot injuries that cruelled the club in 2018. 

Tom McDonald said some of the exercises that were prescribed to the players have helped him in the maintenance of a toe injury that saw him miss the first five weeks of last season. 

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McDonald said co-captain Jack Viney, still trying to overcome a lingering foot injury that has plagued him for close to 18 months, was another to benefit from the sessions that were run. 

McDonald was spotted on teammate Christian Petracca's Instagram story over the Christmas break performing one of the exercises and flexing his toe, but the forward said it was part of his regular routine. 

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"I do that stuff every day. She gave us a lot of different exercises to do with toes and how to use your feet in ways we don't really think about as footballers," McDonald said after training on Friday.

"Usually you just chuck a footy on your boot and kick it as hard as you can but a lot of it is about getting your foot turned on. - Tom McDonald

"I think that's helping a lot of guys. Guys like Jack Viney have really turned a corner and he really rates the exercises that we're doing and it's something you wouldn't really think about it. 

"Hopefully it leads to some long-term improvement for guys as well."

Viney is completing regular 8km sessions in rehab after having surgery on his ankle in the off-season and is getting closer to full football work. 

McDonald was voted best on track in Friday's session after taking a couple of strong grabs in the match simulation portion of training in humid, and at times slippery conditions.

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However, as the forward explained, that was not necessarily a positive outcome.

"It's actually a bad thing though because it means you've got to come Monday with a joke or a rev up for the group so that's not really my forte," McDonald said with a laugh.

"It was a good session. It was tough. You'd have downpours for five or 10 minutes to make it really slippery and the heat and the sweat coming in when it wasn't raining. 

"It was a bit like Maroochydore where we're going next week (on the club's pre-season camp) so it was a good little preparation for that." 

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While McDonald's determination to keep presenting at the footy was noteworthy, Kade Kolodjashnij's foot skills; Bayley Fritsch's aerial ability, as well as his decision-making, and Michael Hibberd's run and carry were among the other highlights of the match practice.

AFL umpires were also present to officiate the gameplay part of training as the players get used to some of the new rules that will be instituted in 2019. 

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McDonald said the switch into game mode had been made.

"We've probably built up a little bit differently. In years past at this stage we'd be in to real gameplay drills but I think today we might have done 10 or 15 minutes of full on match practice at the most and the rest of it was bits and pieces of gameplay," McDonald said.

"In years past, when we haven't played finals we had a lot more time to get ready and you're ready to play a bit sooner. 

"I think this year we tried to deliberately pull it back a bit and get a bit more conditioning in, which is generally a bit safer and you're less likely to get injured doing conditioning than you are in matchplay drills. 

"That's been the main difference is the build-up time and it's probably just from now that we're in game mode going into the pre-season."