With the AFL getting faster and more physical than ever before, the sports scientists are working just as hard to keep up with the game.
"I suppose a lot of the preparation is about seeing what changes there are in the game," Swans elite performance manager Rob Spurrs said.
To track this, the club uses GPS systems on its players. "It's been demonstrated that the game has sped up. The players are running faster,” Spurrs said.
"The overall distance may not have increased so much, but at the same time players are on the ground for less time with rotations, therefore when they're on the ground they're having to work harder than before.
"So a fair bit of the information we find from a GPS point of view but also it's about understanding what physiological areas we need to focus on."
Like most modern-day AFL clubs, Spurrs works with a team of sports experts including a dietician, a doctor, a physiotherapist, strength and rehabilitation coaches as well as physical preparation data managers.
"We do a lot of monitoring on how players are every day," said Spurrs.
"We have a whole series of subjective and objective tests in which the players record the point they are at that time. And then we'll judge what they can and can't do from a training and playing point of view."
To this end, the Swans medical and conditioning department meet in a formal sense once a week. But there are regular catch ups every second day they go through where the playing group is at in preparation for the next training session.
The team includes Bryce Cavanagh, the strength and rehabilitation coach who sets the weight programs and implements the rehab programs.
Nathan Gibbs is club doctor, Matt Cameron the physiotherapist while Matt Pine works with the development group in a conditioning capacity and assists the overall program.
The Swans' sports dietician is Michelle Cort.
What's more, the club has also hired Richard Johnson, a UTS (University of Technology Sydney) honours student studying sports science, while James Green is responsible for the physical preparation data role.
"Michelle has done a lot of group sessions with the players and one on one. And it all depends on what the player needs at the time," Spurrs said.
"Some need to lose some fat; others need to promote muscle growth. So it depends on the individual. The main message is they need some carbohydrates and protein and a good amount of work on hydration and remain hydrated after the training session.
"And also they weigh themselves pre and post every session so they realise what they've lost via sweat and how to replace that with a sports drinks."
But physio Matt Cameron said pre-season posed different types of challenges to those in regular season training.
"On-season is trying to recover someone quickly. Their training loads are less but it's about the shorter term vision,” Cameron said.
"Now (in pre-season) we have a longer term view. It's about preparing to make them resilient enough to endure the rigours of a long season."
And there are different types of injuries when you're training during the off-season.
"They can sometimes train too hard in order to get fitter by tomorrow. The challenge is to get their increase in fitness at the right pace. And we monitor their fitness to judge how their body is coping with the work. We also get the players' feedback," Cameron said.
Spurrs is now into his second season in the role after taking over from David Misson who moved south to join Ross Lyon at St Kilda a year ago. Spurrs said each year he accrued knowledge for the next.
"There's a fair bit of learning from each previous year. Understanding what worked, what didn't and trying to refine it each year to come up with a better program,” Spurrs said.
As for the future, he speculated AFL could move away from high numbers of rotations with less time on the park.
"We may see a reverse effect (in the future) where players are spending more time on the field than currently."
