Newly promoted to the Sydney Swans seven-man leadership group, Luke Parker readily admits he is “absolutely terrible” when it comes to football history and statistics.

“I’ve always loved playing footy but most of the time I was too busy to sit down and actually watch a full game so wasn’t very good at remembering those sorts of things,” Parker confessed.

So, when asked to nominate the last player to win back-to-back Sydney Swans Club Champion awards the 2014 Bob Skilton medallist pondered for an extended period and then offered with more than a touch of uncertainty “was it Adam Goodes?”

It is about the only thing the dual Brownlow Medallist has not done in one the game’s most decorated careers. Goodes’ three Swans Club Champion awards were well-spaced in 2003-06-11.

The club’s last back-to-back Skilton medallist was Paul Williams in 2001-02.

However Parker, who last year surprised even himself when he edged out hot Brownlow Medal contenders Buddy Franklin and Josh Kennedy to become the youngest winner of the the Bob Skilton Medal since Michael O’Loughlin, has no sights set on individual honours, but simply a better 2015.

After a breakout 2014 season there will be no sliding under the radar for the ever-combative midfielder.

In the 2015 Brownlow market a week out from the start of the premiership season he was equal seventh alongside Scott Pendlebury and Jobe Watson.

At the same time last year he was quoted at $1001.

“I know it’s boring but I just want to keep improving and be a consistent contributor to the team,” said Parker, refusing to look too far ahead heading into his fifth AFL season.

“Individually, I’m happy where I am at but there are still lots of areas where I can get better. The challenge for me is to find new ways to improve.

“I’m really not focussed on any of those individual things - I just want to have another good consistent season and get another shot at a grand final. It’s what is driving everyone.

“After a poor start we had a really good, consistent year last year. We won more games than we’d won in 10 years and debuted some really good kids. It was the next generation and showed the club is heading in the right direction.

“And then we fell at the last hurdle. That was just so disappointing.

Specifically, Parker identified skill areas, decision-making, spread from the contest and “little things that help me cover the ground a bit better” as parts of his game he’s looking to improve.

Statistically, though, it’ll be a big ask for Parker to repeat the massive jump in his statistical output from 2013 to 2014.

Having averaged 20.96 possessions per game in ’13 he took that number to 25.92 in ’14. His average contested possessions jumped from 9.64 to 12.72. His average clearances climbed from 3.24 to 4.96, and his tackles went from 5.00 to 6.04. His 1%ers per game almost doubled from 1.12 to 2.08.

Having never had more than 30 possessions in a game in his first three years Parker had six last year, headed by a career-best 35 possessions in the win over Essendon at the SCG in Round 19.

More definitively, his Club Champion vote count in precisely the same number of games went from 542 to 748. And his Brownlow Medal votes went from zero to 12.

And it’s not as if he was coming off a really low base in 2013. He was sixth in the Swans B&F and was judged the club’s most improved player.

Yet when he arrived for the Club Champion dinner, he had no expectations whatsoever.

“I knew I’d had a reasonably consistent year but had no idea I’d be there in the finish. I expected it to be between Bud (Franklin), Joey (Kennedy) and Kizza (Kieren Jack), or someone like Nick Smith who is so under-valued outside the club.

“I just hoped I’d get a few votes, maybe improve on the year before, and have a good night,” he said, having sat on a table with Jack, Sam Reid, Tommy Mitchell and their partners.

“And as the night went on I thought Bud or Joey had it in the bag.”

That’s not Parker being diplomatic. That’s Parker being Parker. A wonderfully modest and level-headed young man admired so strongly by people at all levels throughout the club for the way he goes about his business.

But the match committee had seen things differently. And by the time final votes were counted the leader board showed Parker (758) had won comfortably from Kennedy (709), Franklin (688), Jack (663), Jarrad McVeigh (624), Malceski (576), Ben McGlynn (575) and Smith (568).

Suddenly Parker, who had also claimed the coveted Players’ Player Award as voted by his teammates, found himself having to get up in front of 800 people and make a speech.

“I’d never done anything that big before … it’s all a bit of a blur. I would have said a few thankyou’s and stuttered my way through it. I can’t really remember. I just wanted to get out and celebrate the year with the boys.”

Parker, with 82 games under his belt, ranks seventh on players taken in the 2010 Draft behind West Coast’s Jack Darling (90), Hawthorn’s 2013-14 premiership pair Paul Puopolo (88) and Isaac Smith (86), North Melbourne’s Shaun Atley (86), Andrew Gaff (85) and Dyson Heppell (84).

And that despite not making his AFL debut until Round 8 of his first season at the club in 2011.

Already Parker, substitute in Sydney’s 2012 premiership side, has moved into second spot on the list of games played for the Swans in No.26.

“I could have taken number 31 after Brett Kirk retired but I didn’t want to put too much pressure on myself and take a champion’s number,” he said.

Parker, not about to trade numbers for anything, is a long way off the club games record in jumper No.26, held by 1979-92 stalwart and Team of the Century member Stephen Wright at 246.

Having put the disappointments of the grand final behind him Parker and girlfriend Kate, a media buyer and planner, enjoyed a three-week holiday in New York, Los Angeles and Hawaii. “No boys trips which was a bit of a shame,” he said cheekily.

Also he joined Pendlebury, Ablett, Selwood and Tom Hawkins on a visit to the Gatorade Sports Science Institute in Florida, which specialises in helping athletes optimise their performance by driving research, improving education and providing world-class sports science services.

More recently, while preparing for season 2015, he’s been focussed in renovating his Coogee home. Wisely, he recruited his father Wayne, a carpenter and one-time suburban footballer at Noble Park in Melbourne, to take charge of the project.

Now, with the season upon him, it’s all tools down. Parker and his teammates have a new job to do, starting with Essendon at ANZ Stadium on Saturday afternoon.