Every December and January the AFL world is awash with news about time trials, personal best times run by players and those that are burning up the track.

So at AFL.com.au we have decided to determine who is the fastest middle-distance runner in the competition, as if the victors of the time trials run by the 18 AFL clubs were competing in a race over 2km this week.

The difficulty in putting together an exercise like this is emphasised by the fact that clubs are notoriously secretive of the times their players run, desperate not to give opposition teams any competitive advantage.

Some clubs run their time trials over 2km, while others prefer to test their players' endurance over 3km. Geelong now has its players complete a 15-minute run, where the objective is to cover the most amount of distance in that time period.

Others simply don't run any tests, making comparisons between the clubs tough.

However, it is difficult to look past former athlete and Cats midfielder Mark Blicavs as the competition benchmark given his athletics background and some of the numbers he consistently produces in time trial testing.

Greater Western Sydney running machine Tom Scully and Hawthorn wingman Isaac Smith would serve as Blicavs' biggest competition, while West Coast's Chris Masten is also a supreme runner.

Patrick Ambrose is a fine all-round athlete and endurance is one his key strengths. The defender took out the Bombers' 3 x 1km time trial around The Hangar at Tullamarine, holding off young midfielders Kobe Mutch and Dylan Clarke. Ambrose also won last year's test, beating Brent Stanton, when the players completed a 2km course around Princes Park in Carlton.

Previous stars: Newly-retired Brent Stanton was the perennial winner of Essendon's time trial and relished long-distance running during his career. - Ben Guthrie