It’s no wonder this group of 13-year-old boys can’t wipe the grins off their faces.

They were part of a squad of promising young players who have just completed a summer development camp at the Swans under the watchful eye of NSW elite talent manager, Chris Smith.

The boys came to the club in three groups - Under 12’s, Under 13s’ and Under 14’s - and had three sessions each during the nine week program.

Nearly all the players represented the Sydney City Junior Assocation this year, playing in a carnival against teams from other regions of Greater Sydney.

The boys really enjoyed taking their training to the next level at the Swans, and several said they hadn’t realised training could be such fun.

Smith also utilised the services of the club’s skills acquisition expert, Ben Moore, who filmed the players doing drills and provided feedback on how to improve their skills.

Smith said there was a special focus on improving the boys’ kicking skills.

“From a recruiting perspective, regardless of how athletic, competitive or driven a player is, if they can’t kick and they then turn the ball over, it comes at a high cost,’’ Smith said.

“A lot of kids have simple flaws in their kicking technique and they should take every opportunity to fix those things.’’

Another aim of the camp was to equip the boys with skills they can take back to their local clubs - with these boys coming from the East Sydney Bulldogs, Wests, Newtown, Glebe, Maroubra and Drummoyne.

“We wanted to teach them the importance of things like intensity, professionalism and the use of their voice both at training and during games,’’ Smith said.

“If these kids can go back and utilise these skills at their clubs and help their team-mates, then we can improve the standard of footy overall.’’

Smith said it was an enjoyable experience for everyone involved. “The boys (about 80 in total) were a very keen, enthusiastic bunch. They were ready to soak up information and I got a lot of reward from it too.’’

The Swans’ summer camp was a sign of exciting things to come for junior footballers in Sydney and around the state.

The Swans are preparing to ramp up their involvement with young, talented players by setting up an AFL-approved Academy which will come into being next year.

The club will select the best juniors, starting from nine years old, and bring them into the SCG for regular training sessions.

The plan is to have squads of 15 boys in each age group, from age nine to 17 when the boys reach draft age.

“Going forward this sort of program is a key platform of future recruiting for the Sydney Swans,’’ Smith said. “Hopefully in a few years we see some of these boys running around on the SCG wearing the red and white.’’