JETS players have been running 26 kilometres a week and doing up to six field and gym sessions to ensure they are ready to go when training resumes on Wednesday ahead of a much-anticipated reboot of the A-League.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The players will check in at Ray Watt Oval on Monday for the first time since the A-League was shut down on March 24 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Each player will be tested for COVID-19, with the results to be known before training proper starts on Wednesday.
The draw for the remaining 32 games, which will be played over a 36-day period including a one-week finals campaign, is expected to be released this week.
Initially, the 11 teams would be based in a NSW hub with games to be played in Sydney and Newcastle. That could change if state border restrictions are lifted.
FFA head of leagues Greg O'Rourke said with proposed extensions to player contracts only running until the end of August, the need to get the resumption process started is pressing.
"The schedule that we've shared with the clubs ... is to start the first game on Thursday the 16th of July and finish that a month later and then one week for finals," O'Rourke said.
The Jets, who sit in ninth place three points outside the top six, have games against Sydney, Central Coast, Western United and Wellington Phoenix.
They meet the Sky Blues away, with the other fixtures likely to be played at McDonald Jones Stadium in front of fans after the NSW Government on Sunday confirmed that stadiums can be filled to 25 % capacity from July 1.
Jets strength and condition coach Brice Johnson has been monitoring the players training in isolation and is confident they will be up to speed.
"I am in awe of the commitment they have shown," Johnson said. "They have been doing about 26 kilometres a week. On a big week during the A-league we will get up over 30ks. . They keep coming to me with questions and ideas and have been wanting to try this and do that. It has been great. In talking to [coach] Carl Robinson, he wants to get as much technical and technical information into them as we can. I think the training intensity will be the battle. In terms of monitoring, we need to make sure they don't go too hard too early."
As well as follow individual programs, the players and staff have had to complete daily COVID-19 wellness surveys for the past two weeks.
"It is really hard to know without being there with them, but for the most part, I feel like the guys will have enough running in their legs," he said.
"When the league was postponed on March 24, we kept them going because if it did get up again quickly, we needed to be ready to go.
"Then we backed off in the middle part and gave them a down week and we have slowly progressed it up. In the past two weeks they have come up 10-15 per cent a week in their overall load. They have been doing four pitch sessions and two gym sessions."
