“WE’LL continue to build and where that takes us, who knows. There’s a feel of real excitement around right now.”

With five days on the Sunshine Coast to come and a gruelling training camp the main feature, you can understand Director of High Performance Andrew Russell’s eagerness to get going.

As a new week begins and Carlton prepares for its Round 1 date with Richmond, all that comes before it will take another significant step under Russell’s watchful eye.

And while the excitement may be widespread across the entire playing group, Russell may be the most excited of it all.

As he put it, with a wry smile on his face — “I get to smash these blokes.”

“We’re going to be putting them through some pretty tough sessions this week, especially Monday and Friday… The boys are really starting to ramp up specific preparations for JLT and into the season,” Russell said.

Andrew Russell will cast a watchful eye over the pre-season camp on the Sunshine Coast. (Photo: Carlton Media)

“We had a really good block of training over the last three weeks — we’ve had a lot of guys that have done a lot of work. There’s some well-documented guys who have missed a bit but the majority of the guys have got a lot of really good work into them.”

Pleasingly for Russell, he’ll also have some key charges back out on the track in a bigger capacity.

He envisaged that Lachie Plowman will join key recruits Mitch McGovern and Will Setterfield in increasing their loading over the course of the camp.

“With Setterfield and Plowman, they’ve been on track the entire time and we’ve known exactly where they’re at. They’ve slotted in really well,” he said.

“McGovern had that small interruption which was well-documented but he has come back well, doing some good change of direction as well as some footy work. Now is the next step for him to ramp things up and be ready for the season.”

“They will all be doing some gameplay, so numbers are going to start being added to on the track… It’s exciting.”

With a month and a half remaining until the first ball is bounced in anger of the 2019 home-and-away season, there’ll be a strong focus on both footy and relationship-building.

According to Russell, the two go hand-in-hand.

“We’re up here for five days and the main focus is going to be around footy — we’re going to build our game-plan this week and attack how we’re going to go about it,” Russell said.

“It’s also a good time to get to know each other. I’m a bit surprised by how many new people there are, both players and staff, in the last two years. It’s really important to have weeks like this where we can get away, have quality time together and build those relationships.

“It’s so important to build them. Everyone focuses on the game-plan and how you move the ball and defensive action, but those can only be done well and executed well by the players if they’ve got a really good understanding and trust of one another.”

Upon touching down in the Sunshine Coast, leader Ed Curnow said the onus was on the players to own the future — particularly those coming through the ranks and establishing themselves as senior Carlton players.

Russell said the progression of the team’s emerging young talent was crucial, and rising to the occasion of multiple pre-seasons was what would hold them in good stead as they come through the ranks in the navy blue.

“These guys get into the AFL system and in their first year, they’re just finding their way. If they play good AFL footy, that’s a bonus — they don’t understand what it’s about, they don’t understand themselves, they don’t understand how hard they can push,” he said.

“They need to build belief in themselves and that belief then goes throughout the group. You talk of guys like Dow, Fisher and these others — they’re learning. They’re learning a lot, they have learned a lot and they’re continuing to learn a lot.

“We’re really pleased with their progress.”

And as for the experienced brigade?

“You’ve got the old stalwarts that are going really well — ‘Murph’ has been excellent. I think he’s enjoying not being captain and just having that freedom to go out there and train,” he said.

“‘Simmo’ hasn’t missed a beat and he’s a true professional. I’ve really enjoyed working with him since I’ve arrived. There aren’t too many of those older guys around, though.

“They’re all excited about the younger breed coming through and seeing how quickly they can develop. They want them to and they need them to.”