MELBOURNE’S Nathan Jones is feeling fresh and ready to fire into his 15th AFL season.

The midfielder missed the opening round of the Demons’ 2020 campaign with injury, but the industry shutdown created an opportunity for Jones to get his body right.

And the 31-year-old didn’t waste it.

“We’ve just come from a fair break off, at a time when we never get any time off, so to be honest, I feel great physically,” Jones said in a press conference at Casey Fields on Wednesday morning.

“The sessions that Burgo (Darren Burgess) and the team organised over the [shutdown] period were quite tough, but in saying that, it prepared us for a session like this today.

“I’m pretty confident with where this group is at physically. We’re all pretty excited to get back out there and start playing games.”

Melbourne entire playing list returned to the track for the first time together on Wednesday, after training in smaller groups last week.

The tough, three-hour session consisted of plenty of body-on-body work, given it was the club’s first full-contact session since the AFL’s restrictions were eased.

One player who was happy to be back with his teammates was Christian Petracca – and he embraced the nice and demanding session first up.

“It was a good session – a long gruelling one,” he said.

“It’s good to be back with the boys – it’s been nearly eight or nine weeks since round one, so to see all the boys again, obviously not in smaller groups, it’s a great feeling.”

After impressing in the Demons’ pre-season matches, Petracca used the break to maintain his fitness, keeping up with two sound training partners.

“I was training with Tommo (Adam Tomlinson) over the break, and then some of the sessions, I was training with Gawny down in the Sorrento area,” he said.

“It was really good to train with two boys who are quite elite in their fitness. I’m not the greatest runner, so training with them was great.”

But while there has been plenty of talk over the shift in Petracca’s physicality, the 24-year-old put it down to his mindset.

And he plans to use that extra motivation to his advantage.

“I don’t feel like I’ve ever been overweight or unfit,” Petracca said.

“I think you just get one of those pre-seasons were it’s sort of [a mix of] maturity, you’re a bit more hungry, [and you have more] motivation.

“I felt like the backend of my last year was really consistent, and probably from last year, when you’re coming second last, it’s pretty frustrating.

“I guess the motivation from that was just wanting to prove a lot of people wrong and build this great club back up.”