An off-season hitting the home gym in Perth has helped Andrew Brayshaw return to the club looking bigger and even better ahead of his fourth AFL season.

Brayshaw, who recently signed a four-year contract extension at Fremantle, is looking to build on his impressive 2020 season where he received the equal third-most votes in the 2020 Doig Medal.

While housemates Stefan Giro and Luke Valente headed home to South Australia on the break, Brayshaw utilised the home gym in their share house to improve his strength as he looks to build his midfield prowess in 2021.

“I’ve put on some muscle. Stefan Giro, Luke Valente and I have set up a home gym in our garage so we’ve been trying to use it a little but and, hopefully, the results are starting to show,” Brayshaw said.

“This pre-season’s gone really well. It definitely doesn’t get easier each year but I think you’re just more mentally prepared and physically, you can build on every year.

“This week’s been really tough, we’ve been running and training really hard but all the young boys here (have impressed).

“I’ve met the new draftees over the last few days and they’re all great. I think we’ve got a really good young group that are definitely going to be driving the standards at training this year.”

After an intense return to the training, the first to four-year players are set to take a two-week break over Christmas where Brayshaw hopes to finally reunite with family in Victoria.

“It’s been a while (since seeing family). It would have been in between rounds one and two when we had the break from the AFL, so I went back to Melbourne and saw Mum and Dad – that’s going to be very good, “ Brayshaw said.

“Up until recently, I didn’t think I was going to be able to get back and see them. Since the borders were opened, fortunately, I’ll be able to go back and spend Christmas and New Years with my family and come back early Jan for training. I’m really looking forward to it.”