RECRUITERS lean over the fence at the IMG Academy field in Tampa, one of countless playing arenas at the American facility.

They are watching the NAB AFL Academy players, including the most highly rated 2015 draft prospects from around the country, run a three-kilometre time trial.

They see how some fall away at the end but at least push ahead at the start. They see some not compete as much, sitting further back in the pack. They see who spent their Christmas break training and preparing for the 10-day camp in America, and who might not have done as much work.

They see who are the most vocal players, those who once finished urge others on, and those who push themselves to the point of exhaustion. In the time trial there's nowhere to hide. And it was only part one.

"When we got our day-to-day itineraries we looked at what was in for Monday morning and thought, 'That's nuts'," said Victorian Liam Jeffs. "But once you're here you just get into it."

This is the first time the academy has visited the US for a training camp, after spending the past several years in Europe for the international component of its program, and South Africa and Ireland before that.

But the tour has been altered in many ways. Unlike previous years, there were no parents and family groups attached. There was little sightseeing and no game and opponent organised.

The timing had also changed, being moved to January from April to become a part of their pre-season instead of interrupting matches. The 35 players will come together again in April, when the squad plays two games against VFL sides.

The fitness focus was evident on the Monday morning of the tour when, after the time trial, the players were put through a punishing conditioning session, 12 minutes of fartlek training and then hill runs.

Dylan McDonald, a midfielder who has had family members win the Stawell Gift, won the time trial but others also impressed.

High performance coach James Veale leads a swimming session. Picture: Lachlan Cunningham/AFL Media

Ben Crocker pushed hard at the end, Callum Mills wants to win everything he does and ran well, and although Gach Nyoun's coughed up most of his breakfast eggs on the way to the hills, he still completed the up-and-down runs.

The group stayed at the IMG Academy for a week, and didn't really leave campus at all – although the enormous facility was so big that it took a 10-minute bus trip to another part of the centre for lunch and dinner.

They used the extensive gym, and lifted weights alongside athletes training for the NFL draft combine. They were exposed to the eye test – a room in the facility which trains the eye muscles to respond quicker and quicker – and were part of Gatorade's Sports Science Institute, with every player doing a VO2 max test to measure his oxygen intake.

A soccer pitch became a training base, and the players were pushed, particularly on Wednesday with more competitive work. When it got more willing, an Italian youth soccer squad crowded behind the fence to catch a glimpse, not exactly sure what they were actually watching.

They weren't alone. Strolling through Atlanta airport en route to Tampa, players were regularly stopped by Americans asking what sport they played. Few had heard of it, even less had seen it. Playing with no padding impressed them, as did the fact there were so many different shapes and sizes in the group.

There are also many different ways they got here. Although they were a team during the camp and are aiming for the same thing – to be drafted by a club later this year – each will approach the season in a varying way. Each, too, has his own story of getting to this point.

Mills gave up rugby union as a teenager after Andrew Pridham, a close family friend and now chairman of the Sydney Swans, asked the midfielder to join his son's team.

The NAB AFL Academy team in Florida. Picture: Lachlan Cunningham/AFL Media

He did, and then started with the club's academy, and enters this year as perhaps the best player in the whole pool but one the Swans will have first dibs on.

Darcy Tucker is a determined, effective player off half-back who used his time injured last year to get even stronger, and he, too, will be a high selection.

Darcy Parish lives on an 800-acre farm near Winchelsea in Geelong, shears sheep when his dad needs him, drives tractors in hay season and only got his first mobile phone last year. "I wasn't really into phones and stayed away from them," he said. "I couldn't go anywhere without it now probably."

He also plays some terrific, attacking footy and was a spark among the group on tour. He goes to Grovedale College with Rhys Mathieson, a tough, relentless midfielder who hates to be beaten and a likable member of the squad.

Harley Balic has a Bosnian background, he played basketball at elite junior levels and hasn't played for Victoria in any footy yet. But he shapes as an early pick and he has some tricks.

Many have had to move to follow their footy. Jacob Hopper was born in Leeton in New South Wales (making him eligible as an academy player to Greater Western Sydney), but has gone to North Ballarat, studies at St Patrick's College and looks likely to add to their roll call of AFL graduates.

Tim Sullivan left Port MacDonnell to shift closer to his SANFL club, while Aaron Francis cut the population of Wanbi to "about 12 people" when he arrived at boarding school in Adelaide. Luke Partington also moved to Adelaide from Tumby Bay, and struggled for the first few months at his new school before coming to grips with it.

A handful of the players come into their biggest years with an idea of what it is going to entail with family members already gone through the AFL system.

Crocker remembers recruiters coming over to his house to interview his brother Sam, and recalls the moment at home when the Saints read out his name. Charlie Curnow saw his oldest brother Ed get picked by Adelaide, delisted, picked by Carlton and then make it.

Callum Ah Chee also has an older brother, Brendon Ah Chee, who is in the system with Port Adelaide.

Swans recruiter Michael Agresta interviews Callum Ah Chee. Picture: Lachlan Cunningham/AFL Media

Josh Dunkley will spend this year working at a primary school, but also as the most talked about father-son prospect. Eligible to join the Sydney Swans, where his dad Andrew played 217 games, Dunkley will decide later in the year whether to nominate under the bidding rules or enter an open draft, which could see him remain in Victoria.

He would be an asset to every club: he has a professional approach already, is popular and plays with ferocity. When the team hopped on the bus to leave the IMG Academy and head to Orlando for the last three days of the trip, it was Dunkley who was last on, loading bags and making sure everyone had a seat.

Sam Weideman also comes from football stock, with his grandfather Murray Weideman a Collingwood legend and father Mark a past player.

For Weideman, the tour had separate challenges in the rehab group as he recovers from an ankle injury. He'll be back in a month.

But for his regular training partner, South Australian forward Ryan Burton, the process will take much longer after a horror broken leg near the end of last season.

He doesn't know when he'll be back, just that he wants to do it as soon as possible, hopefully this year. "I have to think that way and be positive," he said.

The 14 clubs that were represented on tour by recruiters interviewed every player in a 15-minute block over two nights, mostly get-to-know-you type of chats.

Much of their work was done in observing: seeing the player who gives a 'woo-hoo' after a drill and brings some energy, finding the one who asks a question in a meeting, the ones who get listened to and who don't say much.

They watched as the academy players trained alongside Geelong pair Joel Selwood and Tom Hawkins, and Swans midfielders Dan Hannebery and Luke Parker, and noticed how some players liked the challenge.

Defender Sam Skinner couldn't wait to get into match practice so he could line-up on Hawkins. Off the field Skinner likes to draw, take photos and play guitar, but he tackled the power forward hard, and afterwards Hawkins said he was surprised at the intensity of training.

Liam Jeffs undergoes testing on the camp. Picture: Lachlan Cunningham/AFL Media

After a daily and demanding training week of training in Tampa, designed to be similar to an AFL club's program, the team's stint in Orlando was lighter and included an NBA game and some shopping.

The academy players are regularly told the program gives them a head start and advantage on other draft hopefuls.

Through it they see what an AFL career could be like, they are embedded at clubs for weeks of training and lodge at listed players' homes while there, they learn about diets, how to handle themselves in interviews and travel overseas to bring it all together.  

They'll leave knowing it's their turn to make use of it all back home.

"It's been demanding, but the rewards we'll get from this camp and the way we'll be able to develop and go into the year ahead, it's certainly beneficial," said Jacob Weitering, who rolled an ankle at training and spent a day on crutches.

"It's shown you can achieve anything, and that you can do whatever it takes to get through hard sessions. The recruiters have told us that it will only get harder from here."