Em McDonald will soon be back at training with her beloved Emus teammates

People who haven't played team sports often won't understand those sorts of comparisons but for Orange Emus' halfback Em McDonald, the bond she has with her playing partners is an unbreakable one.

That's why the 20-year-old is as keen as Mustard to return to Endeavour Oval as the men's and women's sides are on the brink of officially kicking off their pre-season.

"Your teammates are like your second family," McDonald said.

"Training by yourself isn't the same and I think a lot of the girls are keen to come back.

"For me it's also a social and mental thing going back to training, having a laugh and a chat."

The return to training is a timely one for McDonald because while she's been doing her best to stay in shape amid the downtime, she knows that there's a big difference between match fitness and general fitness.

"I've been going for 5km runs but game fitness is a different ball game," she said.

"My fitness isn't at its best and it's definitely something I can work on."

Both the men's and women's sides at Emus have an urgent approach towards the quick season they're in for and know there's not as much wiggle room for error this winter.

"There's no time to slack off with a short season otherwise you're not going to be on top at the end," she said.

"You've got to go hard with the time you have. I think Al and Max will train us hard. It's going to be a tough gig."

The girls in green won't have much say in what kind of training they engage in as there's a host of restrictions surrounding contact drills and drills with football involved.

Due to those limitations, you'd expect most players in the region to come out of this eight-week pre-season period in good physical condition. "Most of our training will be fitness based," she said.

"We will have basic skills thrown in there, too... those are the things that win games and premierships."

Despite the negative impact the Coronavirus has had on almost everyone, McDonald knows her club is trending in the right direction and attributes that to a family-oriented environment and the influence of some of the senior members.

"Our club has been a pretty tight-knit group and the and in the last couple of years things have taken a turn for the better," she said.

"The men and the women both train at least once a week with each other developing skills and fitness.

"The best way to learn is off people who have knowledge you don't have. Nigel Staniforth, Lachie Harris, Tom Green... people that have played high-level rugby are the ones you want to gain knowledge off."

Playing contact sports as a woman is in someway defying gender norms and McDonald doesn't only do that on the sporting stage, she does it on a 9-5 basis as well.

The powerline apprentice has been able to continue her trade as an essential worker but things have changed since the onset of the virus.

"We've been split in half to try and prevent everyone from our depot getting it if a cases arises," she said.