Ablett was re-elected to the club's nine-man leadership group in 2009, but he told sydneyswans.com.au that it wasn't necessarily based on his recent form.
"For me in the leadership group, it's more about actions. I haven't played that well in the past couple of years, but I try to pride myself on the way I conduct myself around the club and the way I train," he said.
"It was good to get re-elected into the leadership group after a disappointing year last year, so hopefully I can repay a bit of the faith that the group's shown in me and start playing some good footy again."
Fortunately, Ablett has enjoyed the sort of pre-season that will allow him to return to peak form. He managed to string together a solid block of training after Christmas, capped by several good hitouts in the Swans' practice matches.
Despite the Swans' 50-50 record in their NAB Cup and NAB Challenge fixtures, Ablett, 26, said the pre-season matches had provided a strong preparation for Saturday night's round one clash against St Kilda at Docklands.
"Our last game against Adelaide was pretty disappointing with a few of the things we were trying to do, but even though we didn't play well, it reinforced the things we weren't doing, which we knew we needed to do," he said.
"Like Roosy has said, a lot of our senior guys are pretty fit and have had a pretty good preseason. That's probably the main thing and we'll hopefully take some good form into round one."
While the Swans are travelling into enemy territory for the season opener, Ablett said it was a good way to focus the players' minds on the task at hand.
"You know what you're going down for; everyone has dinner together Friday night and you start talking about the game on Friday night," he said.
"I think it's a good thing that we're away and getting to Melbourne, where there's a lot more hype about the season than there is up here. It'll be good to get amongst that atmosphere and have a good night together on Friday night and hopefully a better one on Saturday night."
Now entering his ninth AFL season, Ablett is used to hearing the pre-season pundits cast the Swans aside as a genuine threat.
He believes the club's combination of elite senior players and emerging youngsters augured well for a seventh successive finals campaign.
"With all respects to the media and all the experts out there – and they do know what they're talking about – at times, we tend to disagree with their assumptions," Ablett said.
"We had some young guys come into the team last year and I think that's where you get your improvement from, from the younger guys. Kieren Jack, Jarred Moore, Patrick Veszpremi, they'll all be better for having a year of senior footy under their belts."
Dream Team watch – Luke Ablett is rated a $242,700 midfielder in Toyota AFL Dream Team 2009.
