sport, local-afl

North Melbourne's Shaun Atley has had no shortage of fierce training partners while in lockdown. Apart from the Kangaroos' Arden Street headquarters, the most competitive place Atley could be is at his family's farm in northern Victoria. Joining him at the Corop residence during the AFL season shutdown are his brothers - Joe, who plays for Port Adelaide, and Essendon VFL-listed Jacob. "This time of year I never really get back home so to be able to go back and spend time with family is pretty special," the dashing defender told AAP. "There's a footy oval in town, but we've got enough space on the farm to be able to do some running sessions. "We've got a dirt track down the paddock that goes for a couple of kilometres so you can do most of the running there. "We've got a bit of a home gym set-up as well so more than enough for training." Helping Kangaroos players put in the hard yards has been coach Rhyce Shaw, who has undertaking the same training program. While it started off as a laugh seeing Shaw - who is five years retired from the AFL - try and keep up with North's endurance beasts, the fun quickly ended. "The first couple of weeks we got eased into the program with pure running but I think because Shawry was doing it he thought it was a bit easy so by the third week we got smashed," the 198-gamer said. While uncertainty surrounds the season's resumption, North entered the competition suspension buoyed by a rousing comeback victory over St Kilda. "All we can do is keep being hopeful (of restarting), but it's definitely been a bit up and down with the motivation levels just not knowing when we are starting," Atley, 27, said Australian Associated Press

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