THE FULL Sydney Swans playing group returns to pre-season training on Friday and the premiers know they need to improve if they are any chance of defending their flag in 2013.

Adam Goodes and Nick Smith won't participate in the session due to knee issues, but Ted Richards and the rest of the senior players will take to the track after an extended rest since the Grand Final victory over Hawthorn.

With Kurt Tippett expected to join the Swans via Tuesday's NAB AFL Pre-season Draft and a host of the club's youngsters already impressing in training, optimism is high surrounding the premiers.

But coach John Longmire is only cautiously optimistic.

All he has to do is reflect on the Hawks, who won the flag in 2008 with a promising young list, only to miss the finals altogether the following year.

"There are no guarantees," Longmire told AFL.com.au.

"We're working hard and we understand that everyone's equal as far as points for next year.

"We're clearly going about preparing as best we can, both from a list management point of view and just making sure we do everything right with the reduced training time we've got.

"We need to make sure we're cracking the whips again pretty quickly."

Kieren Jack, Lewis Jetta, Dan Hannebery and Alex Johnson are among the players already turning heads during pre-season.

Tom Mitchell, Jed Lamb and Jordan Lockyer should push for senior selection this year, while Gary Rohan is on the mend following his broken leg.

With the likelihood of Tippett bolstering the forward line, there is much to like about the Swans' prospects.

The Hawks, however, are the clear premiership favourites, with the Swans sitting second alongside West Coast.

It is of little concern to the Swans, who also didn't draw premiership favouritism in 2012.

"We don't spend too much time thinking who are the favourites and who aren't," Longmire said.

"We never thought about not being talked about (last year) and we won't think about it too much if we are getting talked about (this year).

"Hopefully our players are confident that their best pressure footy stands up, but they also know they need to get better.

"Whether that's through recruiting or individual player development or game style development, we're still hungry to get better."

While it is full steam ahead for Longmire and the Swans, he did make sure he took time to enjoy the premiership.

"Yeah, I've watched the game in some quiet moments," he said with a laugh when asked about the Grand Final.

"We won by 10 points. If we'd lost by 10 points, people would be saying we're not good enough and need to get more players and be more competitive.

"We still needed things to go our way on Grand Final day."

And Longmire isn’t anticipating any sort of premiership hangover.

"You won't know until the season starts, but to this point the players are really looking forward to going again," he said.

"How it transpires into the pre-season and the season itself, it's too early to tell, but you hope it keeps going and players are keen to be competitive again."