SYDNEY Swans midfielder Luke Parker has no plans to plateau after a career-best season in 2014, believing the improvement required at the club will need to come from its younger players.

Parker won the Swans' best and fairest last year as a 21-year-old in only his fourth season and was unlucky to miss selection in the All Australian team.

His 25-goal season from the midfield helped lift the Swans to the Grand Final but after a horror loss to Hawthorn, he has put an emphasis on improving his leadership.

"I was pretty happy last year with my performance - it was probably my most consistent year," he told AFL.com.au.

"But there's always areas to improve on and I'm looking to have more leadership this year and really drive the group and young blokes.

"I think on the whole, our next tier of players really need to go to the next level and that's me included, Dan Hannebery, Sam Reid, Harry Cunningham and others. We all need to get to the next level to really compete and get back to where we need to be."

Parker, who played in the Swans' 2012 premiership, said the standard of pre-season training has been strong and that some new faces could emerge in 2015.

"It's always good that the boys have come back in really good nick and we're working into games," he said.

"We've got basically everyone out on the track and it's really good to see even the young blokes stepping up, guys in their second year like George Hewett, who are pushing the older guys."

Luke Parker and several NAB AFL Academy members watch on during training in Florida.




Parker and Hannebery flew to America last week to train under the guidance of the Gatorade Sports Science Institute at the IMG Academy in Florida.

They were joined by Geelong stars Joel Selwood and Tom Hawkins, with all four completing a training session with the NAB AFL Academy on Friday morning.

"We had a run around the day after the flight and I felt horrible, but training with the kids today was great, they were really competitive and trained to a good standard which was good to see," he said.

"We did an extra running session at the end because we're missing two sessions back home, so the main thing is that we don't drop off our standards because we're over here doing some testing.

"It's such an important part of the year and we're getting into matches soon and we want to get that match fitness."