Gold Coast SUNS Football Manager Marcus Ashcroft says SUNS players’ will be fighting against their instincts while they rest up before pre-season training starts next month.

“They’ll be getting a bit twitchy,” Ashcroft said. “The guys will be pretty keen to get back into it after a week or two of sitting idle. They enjoy being active. And some of our guys really thrive on the hard work. They love it. We’ll have to rein them in a bit. It’s a balancing act sometimes.”

According to Ashcroft, who played 300 games with the Brisbane Bears and Lions between 1989 and 2003, rest was a critical part of every AFL players’ off-season program.

“Most of them have gone home to get away from the club for a bit. They’ll have a couple of weeks where they do absolutely nothing. You need the rest mentally more than anything. Especially for some of the really young guys. Some have been juggling a full training load and football with school. They’ll be feeling a kind of accumulative fatigue. You need to recharge your batteries.”

But after two weeks of refreshing rest and rehabilitation the wheels soon start turning once more.

“After that initial period it’s all about what’s probably best described as active rest. Physically you have to get the body going again.”

Ashcroft said the SUNS’ training services staff tailored specific off-season plans for every player.

“The guys who need to keep tabs on their weight might do some extra running, but other than that most of the guys will just do some light running work or some cross training like swimming or cycling until pre-season proper starts up.”

And that’s on 18 October for the large portion of the existing list. Others, the more mature players mostly, will start up a fortnight later.

The finalised GC SUNS list first session will be on 22 November, the Monday after the National Draft.

Then the hard work of readying the club’s for its first AFL Premiership season really begins.