Chris Fagan admitted at training last week he was impressed by the condition that the team has returned to pre-season in.

Last week the Lions were put through their passes as they took on the 3-kilometre time trial in an attempt to set new personal bests and gauge their fitness levels ahead of next season.

According to Fagan there was plenty to be happy about, as 14 players came away with personal best times.

“We had 14 guys do personal bests, which is a pretty significant number,” Fagan said.

“The collective result of that time trial from a team perspective is really encouraging.”

After being sidelined by injury for much of last season, Fagan said Tom Bell left a strong impact on the training track, finishing the time trial in second place.

“Bell ran very well the other day, a pretty good effort considering the injury he had,” Fagan said.

“I think he’ll continue to improve as a player. He knows there is a challenge in front of him and at the moment he’s grabbing it.”

Senior Lions players - Mitch Robinson and Allen Christensen – have returned to pre-season hungry to play professional football again.

“You can tell they can’t wait for the games to start,” he said.

“They’re incredibly enthusiastic at the moment, being starved of playing footy for quite some time tends to do that to you.”

Robinson was ruled out for the season following a broken foot sustained in Round 7, while Christensen has been unfortunate to miss the best part of two years with a broken collarbone.

Skipper Dayne Beams has also progressed well with his post-surgery rehab and will be expected to return to full contact-drills very soon.

“He’s progressed extremely well and is very diligent in his rehab,” he said.

“We expect by around about the camp in Tassie, late December, he’ll start to join in [on contact drills]. If not, he’ll start straight after Christmas.”