BATHURST Giants players are "jumping out of their skin" about a resumption of training, but coach Mark Kennedy knows there are still challenges ahead in 2020.
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Last week AFL Central West clubs were given the green light to resume training in small groups as the social distancing measures put in place for the coronavirus pandemic ease.
While those training sessions will be restricted to a maximum of 10 people and no physical contact will be allowed, it is an important step towards a 2020 AFLCW season.
"It is good news, we are looking forward to it and there are a few guys jumping out of their skin to get out and have a bit of a run around," Kennedy said.
"There's no physical contact, but at the end of the day the guys still remember how to tackle, the training drills are the training drills. First of all we've got to get the guys into a fitness regime because we lost all our pre-season.
"The last two sessions we had before all this hit we had something like 30 people at training, which was really good. There was a lot of enthusiasm around the club and then all of a sudden it ground to a halt, so we'll have to build all that momentum up again."
Building momentum will be important for the Giants if season 2020 goes ahead given the changes to their squad.
From the playing group which reached last year's preliminary final, Nic Broes, Mitch Taylor, Reilly Mitchell, Aiden Macauley, Dave Manning, Dylan Furnell, Steve Yiv, Shaun Noyen and Paul Jenkins are all gone.
"We lost a number of players from last year, a phenomenal amount of players when you look at it in the scheme of things. So we have to rebuild this year," Kennedy said.
"But we'll just have to see how we go. We've got some great kids coming through like Zac Yandle, Jacob Molkentin, Brody Taylor and I wan't to have things in place for those kids to play senior football because they are good little footballers.
"Dubbo want to win a premiership, I think they'll be quite strong this year, my prediction would be a Dubbo-Bushrangers grand final.
"I can't see us sitting in the top four this year, I think we will struggle."
