AFTER receiving an AFL lifeline halfway through the 2019 season and earning a subsequent one-year contract extension, Cam Sutcliffe is throwing himself into Port Adelaide’s pre-season camp on the Sunshine Coast.

Sutcliffe and his teammates arrived in Maroochydore on Thursday and he told portadelaidefc.com.au that they have hit the ground running…literally.

“It has been pretty solid. As soon as we got off the flight we had an eight kilometre running session, which put the boys through their paces,” Sutcliffe said.

“And it’s pretty humid up here so everyone struggled through that a bit.

“We had training today and that went really well and the boys trained really well – everyone’s pretty excited to get through the next five days.”

Port Adelaide has set up base camp at the Sports Hub Sunshine Coast, which has provided the team with accommodation as well gym, recovery and oval spaces for their intense week of training and team bonding.

Sutcliffe said the world class facilities have helped the team put in the hard work over the first few days of camp.

“There’s probably three ovals that we trained at today and they’re in really good nick,” he said.

“To have those facilities and be able to use them – and the gym here is amazing, it’s massive – the boys have really enjoyed that and been able to put in some good sessions.”

Sutcliffe’s journey to playing AFL football for the Power was a unique one – delisted by Fremantle at the end of 2018, he found a new home with Port Adelaide as the club’s leadership player in the SANFL before being selected with pick nine of the mid-season draft.

His delayed start to joining Port’s AFL list meant he missed out on a full pre-season and left him playing catch up with his fitness after being draft mid-year.

However, the hard-running utility is hoping to use the Maroochydore camp as a launch pad for his 2020 campaign.

“Once you get a full pre-season in you can set your year up from there,” said the 27-year-old.

“Last year coming off being delisted from Freo I had a few injuries and probably didn’t take care of myself as much as I probably should have and didn’t give myself the best opportunity to play well at the start of the year.

“But after being drafted mid-year I sat down with Ken (Hinkley) and Chris Davies and had a good chat about getting fitter and losing a bit of weight and being able to tag and run with people.

“So I guess this year sets me up a lot more than what I did last year.”

That said, Sutcliffe steadily built his fitness base and form through the SANFL and eventually earned a call up against Brisbane in round 17.

By season’s end he would add five more AFL games to his career tally and receive a one-year contract extension to stay at Port Adelaide – a show of faith that hasn’t been lost on the South Australian native.

“It’s exciting. Not only for me but for my family and friends as well,” he said.

“It means I get to have another year playing for Port Adelaide, whether that be Maggies or in the AFL I don’t really mind because it’s a great club.”

Sutcliffe had firsthand experience watching the development of Port Adelaide’s exciting young players through both his time with the Magpies and Power and was keen to see what the next crop achieves in 2020.

“We had some success in the Magpies last year. Unfortunately we couldn’t win the Grand Final, but we’ve got a bunch of great guys coming through – young guys as well that are really going to put their hand up to play this year.

“Zak Butters has been really good. Since the start of pre-season he’s been running really well so he would have done his program during the off season really well.

“Miles Bergman today took a nice mark at training so he’s looking like one that might get a game early on in the year.”