West Coast’s players were so pumped to get physical in their first contact session since returning to club-based training that they “went a little bit turbo”, according to Nic Naitanui.

The star ruckman said there were a few sore bodies roaming around Mineral Resources Park on Wednesday after the Eagles laid their first tackles and bumps in almost eight weeks on Tuesday.

“We’ve been running the whole time and not being able to get within a metre and a half or two metres of each other for a while,” Naitanui explained to Mix 94.5’s Breakfast program this morning.

“Everyone was excited and I think because everyone knew it was our first session back they went a little bit turbo and went a little bit harder on each other.

“They took out two months of frustration of being stuck at home. Big Shannon Hurn was going around and hurting a few guys.

“There were a few guys wearing compressions on their legs yesterday afternoon because they had a few hits. Everyone has pulled up pretty well though.”

Naitanui put the players’ hell for leather approach down to being starved of competition for the past seven weeks.

He said they tried to find creative ways to scratch their competitive itch in isolation, but nothing compared to playing footy.

“That’s been the biggest part, because we all like to compete with each other,” he said.

“We’ve been doing things from home. In our pairs we’ll have a goal kicking competition at the end to see who buys lunch for the week.

“Even just calling each other up, sitting out the front and betting on what colour car is going to drive past or who can put a puzzle together the quickest, things like that.

“It’s been boring and we’re so glad that footy is back, because we can start tapping into some of that (competitive) stuff again properly.”