ASK Port Adelaide's new fitness guru Darren Burgess the most radical thing he has done to transform the Power into one of the fittest clubs in the AFL, and he will tell you that the most radical thing was to not do anything radical at all.

Ask him what state-of-the-art scientific equipment he brought from Liverpool to Alberton, and he will tell you he was in a perfect position to see and assess all the latest fitness trends and gimmicks in Europe, and one of the best decisions he made was to leave the majority of them behind, because most don't work.

But the secret is out in Melbourne that Burgess is doing things that no other AFL club is doing. For starters, no other club uses the GPS system "Statsports" Burgess uses to calculate every training movement and game-day sprint, rest, jog, jump, zig and zag.

Other clubs use GPS systems to record distances run, and sprint-jog patterns in games.

But Port Adelaide is getting far more advanced, specific fitness and body load measurements, to help Burgess tailor-make individual training programs that suit the way each individual plays.

"We look at body type and movement style; how they run and change direction. How many twists, turns, changes of direction, and calculate the load on the body with five or six specific measurements," Burgess admitted to me this week.

He also monitors every player, night and day, with a heart-rate strap that details rest, sleep, stress and workrate levels.

"We monitor the players daily, and each day we get a direct recording of sleep time etc, to help us decide if they need topping up (with extra training, not injections ) or backing off," Burgess said.

The young Power players are also being trained in a completely different way to how most AFL clubs have traditionally made their kids AFL ready.

"We looked at the long-term athletic development of younger players, and we have gone away from muscling up, and replaced the traditional muscle strength program with a movement and flexibility based program," Burgess laughed.

"The only guys who use the old weights in the gym now, are the coaches. Buddha Hocking is the only guy in there."

It may also shock many in the football industry to hear that one of Burgess's biggest in-game fitness keys revolves around ball use.

Many AFL club high performance managers demand high altitude camps and a reduction in ball use during pre-season training, because jumping and kicking adds stress and load to knees.

But Burgess was an advocate for more ball use during Port Adelaide's pre-season.

"To be honest I would rather they learn to kick and catch better," he said.

"In games, when you have the ball more, and you use your skills better, you run less.

"Our two biggest quarters from a physical point of view this year were our first quarters against West Coast and GWS. We were chasing and were second to every ball."

Geelong appears super fit, and its record shows it wins close games because it does not fatigue late.

But Burgess believes part of Geelong's secret is that its superior skill level allows it to keep the ball, keep petrol in the talk, and force its opposition to chase and run itself ragged.

Which is another reason why Burgess was so sought after last summer.

He not only understands fitness, he understands AFL. Burgess's two years at Liverpool, time with the Socceroos, and study visits to NBA and NFL clubs, have enabled him to better assess the uniqueness required for AFL.

Richmond and Adelaide fought Port for his services and most believe Burgess chose Port because he had been there before, had unfinished business, and his wife likes Adelaide.

But the crucial factor was that Burgess; with help from the highly credentialed AFL premiership coach he privately consulted; assessed Port Adelaide's player list as being better than both the Tigers and Crows lists.

"Matty Primus had assembled a talented team with 12 or 13 top-20 draft picks. I wanted to get my hands on a good project and I believed in them," Burgess said glowingly, before refusing to tell me which premiership coach he consulted.

The task at Port was not easy. The Power finished 14th last season and had 17 off-season surgeries.

And yet heading into yesterday's game, they were equal top of the ladder with just two players on their injury list.

Burgess is not celebrating just yet, although he admitted the entire staff deserve some credit for ticking every box so far.

"For starters it's early days, and no doubt at some stage we will lose some games, get some injuries, and lose some last quarters," he said.

The AFL season is a marathon, and while being first out of the stadium is pleasing, Burgess knows that if they don't have a kick left near the finish, then he hasn't succeeded.

Originally published as Burgo's fitness revolution