The Magpies will have two weeks off over the Christmas and New Year period before returning to continue their pre-season on 6 January.
Davoren, who joined Collingwood after stints at the Western Bulldogs and St Kilda, says he now has a greater understanding of the physical capabilities of the 45 players on the 2014 list after replacing long-time Sport Science Director David Buttifant in October.
“The focus has been pretty much putting a significant endurance base and strength base into the playing group,” Davoren told collingwoodfc.com.au.
“The first thing (for) anyone new who comes into the job is to just get an understanding of the history of the playing group and the type of training that they’ve been doing over a period of time.
“Obviously David’s done an outstanding job for a number of years with a very, very solid program.
“I guess my bend is towards making sure that we’ve got the capacity to compete over four quarters and to be competitive over the course of the six or seven months that’s required to get to the finals.
“We’ve been putting a significant endurance block into the players lifting in the gym, but in saying that, we’re addressing power as well in the gym and (there is) a heavy emphasis on football.
“We’re really pleased with where we’re at and seven weeks into the program what the quality of the football is on the ground.
“We’ve had some fairly substantial sessions over the last two weeks that we’re all pleased about from a load point and also a football performance point of view.”
Davoren, who has vast experience as a Performance Director and Head Coach of Triathlon Australia behind him, says the football side of the training program will be ramped up once the players return from their break but he will continue to look at rounding out each player’s conditioning.
“There will be a heavy emphasis on football but we’re going to pursue continuing to develop both from a conditioning point of view and a strength point of view.
“There’s still opportunities. Round one doesn’t come around until 14 March, so there’s still opportunities to progress. Yes, there’s a heavy emphasis on football, the quality of football and the length of some of the football sessions will increase, but I can guarantee that there will be some fairly solid days focused on conditioning as well.”
Importantly, several of the club’s key players who are steadily working their way through long-term injuries are on track to join the main group in the new year.
“We’ve had a number in rehab,” Davoren explained. “That’s normal, it doesn’t matter what club you’re at, there’s always going to be a carryover group from the previous year that are going through a rehab process.”
“We’ve got a number that are starting to enter into the main group in terms of some of the kicking, guys like Alan Toovey, for example. Alex Fasolo’s spent the last week back kicking and moving.
“There’s a number of those guys, Jarrod Witts, Ben Sinclair, Tooves, Marty Clarke. Obviously after Christmas we’ll ramp that up and they’ll progress over another four-week period.
“Each player has an individual map that takes them through when they should resume full training. Once they get into full training, the aim is to get a good, solid four or five weeks of full training before they progress into playing.
“We have targets for each guy as to when they’ll enter into the NAB period and then how that plays out through the VFL and AFL practice matches into round one.
“Obviously you’ve got to adapt as to how they progress and if there are any setbacks, but at this particular point in time, we’re pretty happy with where the group is collectively.”
The news is particularly good for one of the forgotten men of the AFL.
Clinton Young played only two games in 2013 after crossing from Hawthorn as a free agent at the end of the previous season. He battled to overcome a series of leg injuries and was never able to produce the sort of form that made him a key player for the Hawks in their Grand Final years of 2008 and 2012.
Davoren says Young is “ahead of schedule” as he seeks to get his career back on track.
“Youngy’s been good. He’s ahead of schedule. I got my head around it very early that he’s an important player and important link in the chain for Collingwood’s on-field performance.
“I have understood his history a little bit more as time’s gone by, but I’m really happy with the last two weeks.
“He’s completed a full training session this week and we’ll continue to pursue getting some volume and some strength foundations in him, but he’s been good. He still requires some management but he’s doing a very good job at communicating how he’s coping and where he’s at.”
