The Collingwood players will be granted a two-week Christmas break before returning for the resumption of their pre-season on 5 January.

Director of Football Neil Balme told CollingwoodTV the football department is pleased with the way the players have attacked the first half of their pre-season campaign.

“They put in a terrific bunch of work – it’s all very individualised, but as a group they’ve done it terrifically and from all the guys say, it’s a lot better output than they had this time last year,” Balme said.

“I think everyone is probably saying that, but it’s good to be able to say it.

VIDEO: Watch Neil Balme's pre-Christmas update.

“The reality is, the boys are in a good place, they’ve worked very hard, achieved a lot of the things they’ve wanted, simply from a conditioning point of view, and also from a game development point of view with how they play.

“Again, we would be disappointed if we couldn’t say it, but we’re in a pretty good position.”

The players with between one and four years of senior experience began their pre-season on 5 November, while the senior players returned on 17 November.

In the meantime, the youngsters have visited Falls Creek for a week-long training camp, while 10 new players have arrived and begun their journeys in Black and White.

“The players have got a decent break, but it’s not a complete break,” Balme continued.

PHOTOS: Friday's final training session.

“They’ve got to keep themselves in good nick.

"They will all have prescribed programs between now and Christmas. It’ll be more recovery stuff and after they have that bit of a Christmas break, they’ll start doing some more regular work. It’ll be weights work as well as running. There’s not that much footy work because they’re not coming together, and that’s only a short time anyway, they’ll be back on deck on the fifth.

“We’ll have to see where they are and see at what point they can start again. We’ll be hoping they’re all in the shape that we expect them to be, and we’ll be able to get going pretty quickly.

“Then that period will be consolidated in the conditioning but also ramping up much more of the team and game development stuff because the games aren’t that far away, even though it’s not Christmas yet, we’re already thinking that way.”

Aside from knee victims Brent Macaffer and Matthew Scharenberg, the only injury concern is Ben Reid’s troublesome calf.

Reid hurt the muscle on Monday. It is thought that it will take three-to-four weeks to heal.

“It’s only a relatively minor thing but we’re probably over-concerned because of his recent history with soft tissues,” said Balme.

“We’ve really got to get to the bottom of that and see where that goes.

“It should be fine but we are certainly quite concerned about it and we’ll consider all of the possibilities around him.

“He is a pretty important player for us.”