Western Bulldogs captain Bob Murphy willย begin pre-season training on Monday, as he takes the next step in his recovery from the knee injury which kept him out of his side's drought breaking premiership win last season.
Murphy tragically went down in the dying moments of the Bulldogs' Round 3 loss to Hawthorn, before the Dogs embarked on a thrilling finals campaign later that season, beating more fancied opponents each week of the finals, before defeating the Swans in the big dance last month.
However, the 34-year-old looks set to be fit for Round 1 next season, after getting through the lengthy ACL recovery program.
โThe best way to answer that is that I forget about my knee (when Iโm training) at the moment,โ Murphyย said when quizzed on his progress.
โIโm back into almost full training and feeling healthy and strong โฆ Iโm ready to get into another campaign.
โItโs always fun to be part of the pack โฆ itโs never much fun to be in rehab. Itโs probably the longest pre-season in the history of the game โฆ itโs been going since (April).
โIt will be nice to pull the boots on again.โ
Murphy will still be unable to join his teammates for drills, butย should be given the all clear for physical contact after Christmas.
"Apart from the competitive footy stuff, I won't do that until after Christmas, but everything else, I'll just be another bare bum in the shower," Murphyย said.
The Western Bulldogs' first to fourth year players returned to training this week, with the remainder of the playing group set to return on Monday.
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