The sun was shining, the grass was still wet with dew, and the chimps were making a din as they chased each other round their compound in the adjacent Wellington Zoo.
When coach Ricki Herbert threw his players a ball on the Newtown Park training pitch and let them loose they were as happy and carefree as those making all the noise above them.
To say they looked happy to be back on the training pitch after three months away would be an understatement.
In fact some – Andrew Durante, Vinnie Lia and Manny Muscat for instance – had been so impatient they had borrowed some balls for an impromptu kick around on their return to Wellington the previous week.
The hard work so necessary to prepare them for the rigours of an A League season will come under the watchful eyes of a sports scientist when July arrives, but for now that was the furthest things from their mind.
It was like the first day back at school after the summer holidays when the lads got together on Monday.
Some familiar faces were missing but there were a couple of new ones with former Adelaide United midfielder Lucas Pantelis and former Perth Glory, North Queensland Fury and Sparta Rotterdam fullback Jimmy Downey in for the first time.
Another former Fury player, Jack Hingett, along with Nigerian teenager Saka, was supposed to be in attendance as well having been invited to trial for the coming season.
As it happened the pair were victims of the Chilean volcano ashes and were still grounded in Australia when training kicked off.
Both made it for day two however and each made a promising start as they hoped to impress coach Herbert.
Saka certainly announced himself with a couple of hefty tackles on Lia and Muscat, but somebody obviously warned him about Tim Brown, because he steered clear of the combative All Whites captain.
Leo Bertos and Tony Lochhead would have loved to join their team-mates out on the pitch but were confined to the running track as they rehabilitate from injury.
Bertos should be back in the thick of things in a couple of weeks, but Lochhead is likely to be away from the action for a little longer.
There is still more than three months till the competition kicks off, and there will be plenty of hard work in that time, but for now the Phoenix players are having fun in the sun, doing what they love most – kicking a ball around.
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