MATTHEW Kreuzer says he has been relishing working closely with Carlton’s developing young rucks.

The 200cm ruck said he and new ruck coach Hamish McIntosh had been working alongside a number of players in the middle.

“We’ve been doing a fair bit of ruck work. It’s been good to have Hamish McIntosh on board. He’s got some new tricks and he was a great player as well so we’re working pretty well at the moment,” he said.

“We started off with Lobbe and Phillips and we’ve also been doing a lot of work with young De Koning so he’s getting really good. He’s put on a bit of size over the break, so I think he’s going to be in for a good year.”

“Training’s been good. We’re in our third week back now so we’re learning new systems and everyone is training really well.”

Kreuzer missed 12 games during the 2018 season due to various injury setbacks. Despite this, he said was fully recovered by the beginning of the 2019 pre-season campaign.

“The body is good now. All of those issues are fixed – I got some good work in during the off-season. 

The 29-year-old said while he and his teammates had been working hard, things would step up another notch after the Christmas break.

“Training has also been really good – I haven’t missed anything yet. I’m looking forward to getting through to Christmas and then really getting going after that.”

Another addition to Carlton’s football staff concluding the 2018 season was former Hawks’ Elite Performance Manager Andrew Russell, who took up the role as the Blues’ Director of High Performance.

Kreuzer said he had been learning new methods of training from Russell.

“Andrew has been really good. Obviously, I’m one of the older boys now so I’m just getting some new ideas off him and putting those into place during training which has really helped me so far,” he said.

Along with new staff, the Blues gained six players during the 2018 draft period. The 173 gamer said he had been impressed with new young talent on display.

“The draftees have been really good. We’ve got some really good young kids,” Kreuzer said.

“Walshy (Sam Walsh) is probably standing out at the moment with the way he runs. His speed really catches my attention so I’m looking forward to seeing him develop over the next few months, but all of the other boys are going really well. Everyone is really fitting in well.”