FORMER co-captain Jack Trengove says he can’t wait to hit the ground running this pre-season, after returning from Glasgow, where he watched sister Jess win the bronze medal for Australia in the recent Commonwealth Games marathon.

Trengove said he had come back “mentally fresh and ready to attack” a big pre-season, after being sidelined since round five this year due to a foot injury.

“From my point of view, it’s about building up my strength work again through the legs. Hopefully over the next few weeks, I’ll progress to some running on the AlterG (treadmill) machine in the gym,” he told Dee TV.

“Then hopefully I’ll progress out on the field and start to get some kms into the legs and really build it up for the start of pre-season.

“[In the meantime] I’ll be as much support and help for the next four weeks. It’s really important for the club that we finish off well and the boys are really motivated to finish off with a bang, because we were really disappointed after the weekend’s efforts against Brisbane.

“I’ll just be another set of eyes and ears for the all of the boys to try and help out as much as possible – to make sure we finish off the season how we want to.”

Despite his break overseas, Trengove said undertook plenty of rehabilitation work for his foot.  

“I had to find a good gym in each country and each city I was in,” he said.

“It was mainly leg exercises and strength work. From the day that I left until the day that I got back, there wasn’t much progression I could make in terms of running, so it was just a matter of building the leg strength and that was the real focus.

“There was a bit of bike work while I was over there – just to freshen up the mind and get away from it a bit – because it can be a pretty tough year, if you’re stuck doing the same thing every day. So that was part of the whole experience as well.”

Although an observer to last round’s 23-point loss to the Brisbane Lions at Etihad Stadium, Trengove said it was difficult watching on and not being able to help.

“You want to be helping your teammates out on the field and get a win on the board. Since the weekend’s game, it was really disappointing and we had a pretty thorough review today (Tuesday),” he said.

“There was a lot learned from it and you never go through those processes where they’re hard reviews, but at the same time, they’re actually great for learning. 

“The last four games are really important to us and we want to finish off this season really well and take some confidence into pre-season and into the years to come.”