Fun and preseason training usually go together as well as two positively charged ions.
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But the Brumbies are bucking the trend ahead of the defence of their Super Rugby AU title now that COVID-19 bubbles and bushfires are, touch wood, a thing of the past.
On Wednesday the playing squad ventured to the Canberra Aqua Park on Black Mountain Peninsula, and were put through their paces on a rigorous obstacle course while encumbered with a mandatory life jacket.
"It was actually surprisingly pretty hard, you forget how hard it is to swim with a life jacket on," Tom Banks said.
"Trying to get up all the mountains with all the boys trying to knock you off so it's actually pretty tiring but it's pretty fun.
"It's something we've really tried to focus on since we've been back, just that fun element of preseason. It is a tough time but you've got to have those enjoying times.
"The coaches have been really good, playing a lot of cricket, we had our camp on the weekend where we got away and got to know each other on a deeper level.
"You take so much out of that and the fun times you have together is what builds the good friendships."
Wednesday's session in Lake Burley Griffin follows on from the weekend's camp in Jindabyne where punishing preseason pain took a backseat to team bonding.
This was more about spending time out on Lake Jindabyne, mindfulness, and sitting around a campfire discussing what the Brumbies were capable of achieving in 2021.
"We tried different things, stuff I haven't really done before," hooker Billy Pollard said.
"Meditation with our new mental strength coach which is good, just to try and stay more in the moment, and just be more present in our game and when you're out training.
"We spoke around the campfire actually about all the values and what it meant to us and how important they are. I probably didn't realise just how much people live and breathe it.
"Especially with the Wallabies coming back, people that have done it a couple of years now, like Scotty Sio [who has] just lived and breathed it for 10 years."
It's all a far cry from where the Brumbies were this time 12 months ago.
At the start of 2020 the club effectively had to relocate to Newcastle, to escape the all-engulfing bushfire smoke from the Namadgi National Park inferno which was draping the capital.
On Wednesday the sun was shining, Lake Burley Griffin sparkled and Brumbies players and the public alike were sucking in Canberra's typically clean oxygen without a care in the world.
"It was definitely tough having to go up to Newcastle, and just having different things along the way, it definitely makes you appreciate the [Super Rugby AU title] win a lot more having to overcome more stuff," Pollard said.
"It was good but much easier this year hopefully, for everyone. It's about the training now but hopefully taking it into the season ahead.
"Our shape is so much easier to do because we have some of the key playmakers like Noah [Lolesio] there just enforcing how to do it, and how important it all is to stay within that, but just to play good footy within that as well."
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But for all the fun of the past few days, this is still preseason, and the Brumbies know titles aren't defended by alpine campfires or time spent on the lake.
And with the January 30 trial match against NSW now on the scrapheap, Dan McKellar and his coaching staff are working harder than ever on the training paddock to whip this squad into shape.
Especially now the Wallabies boys, like Banks, have rejoined the squad.
"Tomorrow will be the biggest session of my life," Pollard said.
"They'll definitely make up for the couple of days we missed so it should be good. I'm looking forward to it but also looking forward to it being over as well."