The Tigers have vowed to put their players through a punishing pre-season but believe they are already ahead of schedule because only four have had post-season surgery.

Veteran defender Chris Newman has had groin surgery, while Steven Morris, Matt Thomas and Ben Lennon are also on the mend.

Tigers football department chief Dan Richardson said the four players would be on modified programs before Chistmas, but that could change depending on their progression.

Tigers fitness boss Peter Burge has declared this will be the toughest pre-season the players have endured, and will also be the longest considering the home-and-away season does not begin until April 3 due to cricket's World Cup.

"It's going to be a longer pre-season given the later start to the year but it's just going to be full of hard work. Without giving too much away, they are probably going to end up working harder than they have ever done before," he said.

"We are going to try a couple of different things this year, but overall it's going to be the hardest pre-season they have ever done."

The Tigers' pre-season included a three-kilometre time-trial on Saturday, with Ellis declaring the team would seek redemption next year after a shattering 57-point loss to the Power in an elimination final at Adelaide Oval.

Ellis, who finished second in the best-and-fairest count, had a modest 20 disposals as the Tigers were thumped in the first week of the finals for the second straight year.

"I know I am still burning from what happened last year in the elimination final. It's two years in a row now we haven't been good enough. But we will have a big pre-season this year and, hopefully, rectify that come the finals next year," Ellis said on Saturday.

"It's going to be a hard pre-season but a good one."

Burge said the Tigers were buoyed by having just four players undergo surgery.

"That is the best part of it - that we have had only four players go into surgery, and none of them are major, compared to 10 last year and 13 the year before," he said.

"We start in a really good position this pre-season, so hopefully everyone will get a full pre-season."

The Tigers' pre-season will include an intensive week-long training camp in Townsville from November 30. The Tigers are disciples of heat training, having previously held camps in Cairns.

"It's going to be a good chance to go and do some hard work and really test them out," Burge told the club's website.

"There is plenty of good research around it and it's something we have been doing here, but we are going to take it to another level this year, the boys are going to find out how tough it's going to be."