As his teammates hit the track for the first time on a warm spring day in Melbourne, Jordan De Goey was 4,400 kilometres away.

It’s not often that you want a Bali holiday to end, but for De Goey, the ash cloud that suspended flights from the tourism hotspot to Melbourne stood in the way of his preparation for 2016.

“Me and a few mates from school went over there and expected to be back a few days before training started,” De Goey told Collingwood Media from the club’s pre-season camp at Falls Creek.

“It’s not really the thing you want, especially coming into your first full pre-season.”

De Goey and the Collingwood staff scrambled to find a route back to Melbourne as quickly as possible as the midfielders first-to-fourth year teammates were put to the test on the training track.

Every session they took part in and every run they went on represented small steps in which the 19-year-old was getting left behind.

“It’s probably my duty to make up for the three days I’ve missed,” De Goey said.

“But my body is feeling fresh and I’m feeling really good.”

Assisting De Goey in returning to full pace is Collingwood’s Falls Creek training camp. Alongside his young teammates, the midfielder has been put to the test by Nathan Buckley and the club’s High Performance manager Bill Davoren.

“We got up at about 6.30 and just headed down to the lake and did a bit of boxing down there.

“Then we came back to the tennis courts… and that’s where we had our skills session.

“I’ll just push as hard as I can here and make up for the lost time.”