HAWTHORN kicked off its pre-season on an overcast, windy morning at Waverley on Wednesday in front of no more than five fans and a handful of media.

It was a stark contrast to eight weeks ago when the club won the grand final on a sunny afternoon in front of more than 100,000 people but all the premiership players bar the retired Shane Crawford were out on the track to begin their 2009 campaign.

Even defender Trent Croad completed light handball drills, while wearing a moon boot on his injured left foot.

Sporting a bandage on his recovering left hand, Lance Franklin did no ball work, just running drills until leaving the track halfway through the session.

Rick Ladson, Luke Hodge, Sam Mitchell, Jordan Lewis, Grant Birchall and Chance Bateman, complete with conservative haircut, concentrated on clearance work.

Campbell Brown, Michael Osborne and Brad Sewell also trained just weeks after representing Australia in the 2008 Toyota International Rules Series.

Mitchell said there were no signs of a premiership hangover and there would be plenty of competition for spots.

“The way they’ve come back they are training hard and everyone’s come back in good condition, looking fit and running the time trials well,” Mitchell said.

“There’s 21 blokes that are coming back as premiership players but the other guys have that burning desire and you get passed very quickly on this list,” he said.

“We are a good strong group of 30-35 players who could’ve played on that last Saturday in September if injury, form or opposition had have gone a different way. If you’re resting because you think you’re going okay because you were in the side, you’ll probably get passed by someone who didn’t.”

Max Bailey seemed to be moving freely five months after undergoing a knee reconstruction. He did some work with new ruck coach Leigh Newton before doing some light up hill running by himself.

Beau Muston, who is also recovering from a knee reconstruction, trained with the main group.