Western Force coach John Mitchell has commended his playing group for heading into the pre-season at close to full fitness.
The Force is the first Super 14 club to begin pre-season training ahead of the first match in early February.
Most of the squad - apart from stars such as Nathan Sharpe, Matt Giteau, Richard Brown, Ryan Cross, David Pocock, James O'Connor and Drew Mitchell - got together for some fitness testing after a five-week break from the tour of the UK and Mitchell was pleased with what he saw.
"They have come back in great shape and they have just been commended by Haydn (Masters) for doing bits and pieces in their off-season," Mitchell said.
"They look in great shape and that tells you that guys can be trusted. We have come back earlier because we don't have a national competition as a pathway and we completed our development tour of Europe five weeks ago."
"The guys have had their annual leave and active rest, and if we left it much longer we would have missed out on the opportunity of gaining physical benefits. If they meet their physical benchmarks some will be rewarded by being allowed to carry along at their own accord. However, if they don't they will be required to shift physically over the next eight weeks."
The Force will play their first trial game in late January only a week after the Wallabies players come into camp, something Mitchell isn't too concerned about.
"We will look to integrate our rugby method in December but won't start our team work until mid-January when the Wallabies return, and only then will we decide on our aims for the season and on our commitments," he said.
"It's not a huge concern and all teams have to adjust this year with the competition starting earlier. It's a real opportunity to shift physically over the next eight weeks and to get rid of some injury hot spots that exist in the group."
Mitchell won't set goals for the 2009 season until the whole squad is together, but he does at least hope to make the finals for the first time.
"I really do expect us to contest finals and that's always the aim," he said. "Unfortunately, I have to wait until we get together fully as a group so we can all understand where we want to get to as a group and work out how we can do that. It's too far out to be thinking about that specifically, though."
"We've got Josh Valentine and Philip Manu coming in, and it's pretty clear that we've been looking at Richard Stanford and Peter Playford, so there's not a lot of change and stability is good for a playing group. You look to evolve the program and the players will be involved in that process as we go forward."
A marquee tighthead prop is something Mitchell is also hoping to sign shortly, but if that doesn't eventuate don't expect the Force to have a marquee player at all in 2009.
"We've still got the opportunity to fulfil that but are not going to just fill it for the sake of it. The market place is being looked at and clearly tighthead is an area where we would like to look at but if that person doesn't surface, we won't just be adding someone so