The Swans started pre-season training last month under the guidance of senior player Will Griggs, who is overseeing the majority of sessions for Canberra-based Pavese.

Pavese has attended a few of the training runs and is quickly familiarising himself with his players’ capabilities. 

“There’s a fair bit of skills work at the moment just so we can get our head around how the boys are tracking with their skill level and then seeing if that marries up to any potential game plan in the pipeline,” he said.

“There’s a fitness component as well, but it’s not the big, hard yards like the AFL clubs do.

“It’s more about seeing where the players are at in their overall skills of the game.”

The Swans missed the Riverina Football League semi-finals last season but will be bolstered by the return of two-time Jim Quinn Medallist Guy Orton and the arrival of North East Australian Football League recruits Alex Birch and Jordan Iudica in 2016.

The full squad is yet to assemble, but Pavese said early signs from the Swans’ pre-season were positive.

“There’s always a way you want the boys to play and you have your own philosophies,” he said. 

“Now it’s just marrying up whether the boys will have the skill set to enact that game plan and strategies.

“In saying that, you don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater.

“If things aren’t going quite as well as you hope, you readjust and make slight alterations.

“But at the moment all the signs through our skill testing and everything else the boys have been doing are conducive to how we want to play.”

The Swans plan to train until December 19 before breaking for Christmas and New Year.