Parker, an outstanding endurance runner, joined fellow draftees Jed Lamb and Matthew Spangher at Swans training for the first time on Monday.
One scribe ventured that Parker's level-15 result in the beep test would have put him among the frontrunners, a suggestion he quickly batted away.
"I wouldn't say I would have won it, but I would have given it a crack," he said.
"I would rather have been out there than running water or something like that. I'm really looking forward to getting out on the track."
Parker, from the Dandenong Stingrays, was regarded as one of the draft sliders, having been considered a potential first-round pick before falling to the Swans at No.40.
But the numbers mattered little to him; more important was the fact the opportunity came his way at all.
"I had no idea where I was going to go, so the main thing I wanted was to get my name and number called out. It didn't really matter if I went 20, 30 or 40. I was just so happy that I got the opportunity to play at Sydney," he said.
His Vic Country teammate, Jed Lamb, was drafted by the Swans almost 20 selections earlier, at No.21, and the mercurial forward said he was heartened by the club's recent willingness to field its first-year players.
"Sydney's a great club for that, bringing their younger guys in and giving them a go. In the pre-season, I'll give it my all and see what happens," Lamb said.
With successive 40-goal seasons under his belt with Gippsland Power at TAC Cup level, Lamb is no stranger to the forward line.
Asked if he liked a goal, his response was unequivocal: "I love 'em."
For former West Coast defender Matthew Spangher, Monday marked another chapter in his football career, instead of the beginning of his AFL adventure.
He is no stranger to the Swans or to Sydney, having made his senior debut in 2008 at ANZ Stadium on the night that Barry Hall knocked out Brent Staker with an infamous punch.
"I'd just come on the ground and ... I looked behind me and saw Stakes on the ground. I saw the replay on the big screen and thought 'I haven't seen this too much at AFL level'," Spangher recalled.
"Because of that, I got to play the majority of the game instead of half the game, which was the plan. I ended up playing on Micky O... welcome to the AFL."
Spangher had been training with Hawthorn for the past fortnight, with the lure of a place on the club's rookie list, but he was delighted that the Swans had swooped at the NAB AFL Draft.
His parting from the Eagles had been amicable enough, he said, but he was still setting himself to win a berth in the 22 to face West Coast early in 2011.
"I certainly feel like every year I'm going out there to do the best I can but there's that little bit of extra motivation this year as well," Spangher said.
"I think we play the Eagles in round three so it would be nice to be out there and get a victory."
