What Hibs want to get from Holland training camp - not just fitness

Harry McKirdy was among the goalscorers in Hibs' emphatic win over Edinburgh City. | SNS Group

What makes a good pre-season camp? Working hard. And working smart. Two things that, according to some, didn’t feature too highly on the Hibs agenda this time last year.

As David Gray looks to build a team capable of not only making a quick start to the Scottish Premiership but going deep in the cup competitions while STILL having stamina enough to avoid a late-campaign collapse, the rookie head coach has seen enough of these squad getaways – good and bad – to recognise the value of getting it right. And the price of slacking off even by two or three per cent.

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Speaking before he flew out to a sleepy and leafy corner of the Netherlands with his squad early this morning, the new manager put the emphasis on hard graft as he said: “I’m looking forward to working in Holland. The international players will come straight back into training with us - but they’ll have to be monitored. It’s been a very tough week for the players starting last Monday.

“There are two games in Holland, so we can manage the minutes. Everything is geared up to us being the best prepared as we can be for Elgin in two weeks’ time.”

The weekend win over Edinburgh City offered an insight into how Gray has been working his players so far. While his starting XI were finishing off the first half in a 5-0 win, the entirely different XI picked for the second half were already well into their warm-up on the community pitch at Meadowbank. The starters were then put through a series of punishing wind sprints at half-time … before heading to the gym.

Triple sessions have been the order of non-game days. And that’s likely to continue here in Holland. The fitness work done now is money in the bank, physiologically and psychologically speaking.

With a closed-door game against German regional league side MSV Duisburg scheduled for Wednesday afternoon, and a more high-profile meeting with Greek champions PAOK to come at the weekend, there will be opportunities for Gray to blood new players – new goalie Josef Bursik, given 45 minutes against City, will be joined by central defenders Warren O’Hora and Marvin Ekpiteta – and try some things out. If there’s always a balance to be struck between getting miles in the legs and info into the minds of players learning new/old things, the new boss sounds confident that he can achieve plenty in a week.

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“We want to get a bit of everything out of the trip,” he said, adding: “You get a benefit of just spending time together as a group, with new players getting to gel quickly.  It’s an opportunity for me to get my ideas across, along with the rest of the staff, and really start to work on what we’re going to do moving forward.

“It’s a bit of everything. Gone are the days when you would just run people for running’s sake. There are areas you want to work on. The tactical side will step up over the course of our week in Holland.”