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

Introduction
After Essendon's elimination final thrashing at the hands of Carlton ended an otherwise positive 2011 season, James Hird ordered his troops back to training a week early with a view to getting a heavy block of work in before Christmas. New high performance coach Dean Robinson has pushed the young Bombers hard in the gym, with several players looking bigger and stronger. On the footy front, the unavailability of Windy Hill has meant Hird and his men have had to search far and wide for training grounds, even venturing into enemy territory with sessions at Collingwood's old (Victoria Park) and new (Gosch's Paddock) home bases. The entire group jetted to the Gold Coast for a training camp in mid-December to break things up.

Medical room
Injury-plagued forward Scott Gumbleton had back surgery in November, which the club hopes will put an end to his hamstring problems. The operation was successful, but the big man is still three months from full fitness. Michael Hurley spent the early part of pre-season nursing his sore foot in the rehab group, but is now back into full training and, according to assistant coach Sean Wellman, "feeling fine". Courtenay Dempsey and Jason Winderlich, who both suffered season-ending knee injuries in round four this year, are on track to play in the opening game of 2012. They're being carefully managed and are not yet participating in all drills, but have built strong fitness bases. Forward Stewart Crameri (post-season shoulder surgery) and Alex Browne (quad strain) have both resumed full training.

Summer superstar
Essendon players have made considerable muscle gains across the board under Robinson's tough regime, but Angus Monfries, Jake Melksham and Dyson Heppell are all looking particularly bulked up.

Draftee watch
The Bombers have been careful to ease their new faces into the full-time workload, but Wellman says all three November draftees have adapted well. They've been sticking to NAB Rising Star winner Heppell like glue in the hope of emulating his first year success. No.19 pick Elliott Kavanagh, a midfielder, could be the most likely to emerge early in the season. And list manager Adrian Dodoro is confident that the three mature-age rookies - Corey Dell'Olio, Mark Baguley and Brendan Lee - are all capable of stepping up to AFL level straight away if called upon.   

Putting the feet up
The Bombers broke for Christmas on December 22 and will return on January 5. Due to their early start to pre-season, they'll get a week off during January.

Membership
Just over 30,000 Essendon faithful had signed on as members before Christmas, about the same number as this time last year. The club's 2012 slogan is 'Stand as One. One dream. One team.'

NAB Cup schedule
Round one (Sunday, February 19): v West Coast Eagles and Fremantle, Patersons Stadium
Round two (Saturday, March 3): v St Kilda, Wangaratta
Round three (Friday, March 9): v Sydney Swans, Etihad Stadium

What they say
"There's no doubt that for us to get to the level we want to get to, we need to be bigger and stronger, and to be able to run out games. We felt that there were times last year, particularly against the better teams, when we struggled in those areas. So we've certainly been able to power a lot of work into the guys and get them to a stage where we've laid a pretty good foundation pre-Christmas. But we're well aware that we've still got a long way to go." - assistant coach Sean Wellman.

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