A HUNGER to improve following a three-week sabbatical is high on Port Adelaide's agenda according to Power vice-captain Brad Ebert.
Port Adelaide's pre-season resumed on Saturday morning in a hot and hard skills and running session on the city's fringe.
With several strong performances in the playing group's 3km time trial around the 'Uni Loop' - again headed by seasoned middle-distance runner Kane Cornes - Ebert says the Power will use the final three months of pre-season for a comprehensive improvement in 2015.
He says the players will use the disappointment of a preliminary final loss to drive improvement on the track this summer.
"The boys are definitely hungry," Ebert said after the session.
"How the season finished off last year, everyone is desperate to keep going and keep improving that's for sure."
After immediately going on leave following the eight-day Dubai training camp, Saturday's return to the track comes ahead of many of the AFL's other teams.
Ebert described the return on January's first weekend as a chance to ensure all players maintained their fitness over the New Year break and get into the thick of training.
"They [Port Adelaide's coaches] wanted us to get back early and make sure we're still fit and still going strong," Ebert said.
"The boys ran really well, it was an impressive start and hopefully we can build on it.
"Other clubs probably started a little bit earlier and probably getting that extra week off afterwards makes you ready to get back, and get into it to make sure you're still around the mark and still fit enough to compete.
"I think we showed that today."
With the heat of Dubai fresh in the minds of players, the 32-degree conditions encountered even in the early hours of Saturday morning was at least familiar to the group.
Ebert hopes the conditions and facilities experienced at the Nad Al Sheba sports complex will keep the Power's players in good shape for a final pre-season fling in the equally confronting dry heat of an Adelaide summer.
"The facilities this time were fantastic," Ebert said.
"Nad Al Sheba ... was really something, it made the whole experience a little bit better.
"You know you're getting flogged and you're having a hard time there but when you're training there, it was really just something.
"Coming back, like I said, the boys are strong and in good shape.
"It just shows that the work we did there, and the work you do by yourself is really paying off."
Port Adelaide's pre-season continues this weekend and runs through until the opening round of the season on the Easter long weekend in April.
The Power will play four trial games, commencing with an internal match at the end of February.
