There was plenty of huffing and puffing but in the end Heath Hocking emerged with the fastest time at Essendon's 3.2km time trial held at Princess Park today.

Hocking ran the course in 10.48 mins and was followed home by Bachar Houli and Brent Stanton.

Fitness Manager, Joel Hocking, said it was a good sign that Hocking, who was promoted off the rookie list onto the senior list last month, had returned for pre-season in such good shape.

""Heath is in really good condition at the moment,"" Joel Hocking said.

""In our mid-season break he ran 11.15 min so for him to run 10.48 min and drop almost 30 seconds off his time is absolutely fantastic.""

Joel Hocking was again impressed with the time of Leroy Jetta who, after recording impressive results in testing yesterday, did more to excite the fitness staff by dropping a minute off his previous best time.

""The fact that he has dropped so much off his personal best time from last year is a credit to Leroy and all the hard work he has been putting in,"" Hocking said.

""I think Leroy has realised what he has to do to play at the senior level. He has also realised what he has to do to play injury free and knows what he has to do to give himself the best chance at that.

""He is right on track to playing good football come round one - that is his aim and that is our aim so exciting times should be ahead.""

Meanwhile Coach Matthew Knights was impressed with the times of ruckmen Jason Laycock and David Hille who ran 11.26 min and 11.27 min respectively.
 
Laycock's time was around 30 seconds faster than his 2006 pre-season time trial.

""For two blokes that are around six foot six or six foot seven to run those sorts of times is a good effort and is a strong endurance result,"" Knights said.
 
Captain, Matthew Lloyd, ran the seventh fastest time in the trial.

 
Top 5

1. Heath Hocking - 10.48 mins

2. Bachar Houli 

3. Brent Stanton

4. Angus Monfries

5. Adam McPhee