With his 16^th AFL season in his sights, Sydney Swans defender Rhyce Shaw is determined to make 2015 one of his best years to date.

Despite referring to himself as one of the “old blokes” at the football club, the 33-year-old has returned to pre-season training in top shape and continues to be one of the liveliest competitors on the training track each session.

Whether it be lining up his much bigger team mate Lance Franklin for a sparring session, offering advice to one of the club’s new players or even challenging club stalwart Kenny Williams to a boxing duel, Shaw looks every part a player keen for another big season.

While there was some doubt about the defender’s playing future at the end of the 2014 season, Shaw said he is thrilled to be a part of it again in 2015 and is enjoying every minute on the track this pre-season.

“This is 16 years for me, so it’s great to be here,” Shaw told SwansTV on Wednesday morning.

“I really enjoy it and I think I was telling ‘Horse’ (coach John Longmire) the other day that I really love coming into the footy club and whatever is going on outside the footy club really doesn’t matter when you come in.

“It’s just a really fantastic place to be and I couldn’t think of anywhere better to be at this stage of my career.

“I can get fat and old later!”

Shaw, who played 20 games this year after missing the majority of the previous season through various injuries, has his sights set on rediscovering his best form in 2015.

The 213-game player, who is the second eldest player on the club’s list behind Adam Goodes, said improvement was certainly still a high priority for the new season ahead.

“If you don’t keep improving, you don’t get anywhere,” Shaw said.

“Even though ‘Goodesy’ is two years older than me – I hope he doesn’t mind me saying that – he wants to improve as well, and that really pushed me to do the same thing.

“I’ve had a pretty tough couple of years but I’m looking to really step back into the role that I played and be the best I can be.

“I want to be the best player I can be possibly for this club and there is no reason I can’t do that again.

“I’m just really looking forward to the challenge again.”

A member of the club’s leadership group, Shaw is rated highly as one of the Swans’ top mentors.

With a handful of young defenders including rookies Sean McLaren, Nic Newman and Lewis Melican joining the list this year, Shaw said he was already impressed with the calibre of the club’s new recruits.

“They are just a great bunch of kids and the club has done a fantastic job in their recruiting over the years that I’ve been here,” Shaw said.

“The kids we get in are just great and they really want to work and learn and all the young fellas have really stepped up.

“They are just trying to learn as much as they can, so hopefully they do really well.”

With a host of senior Swans defenders moving into the latter stages of their careers, Shaw said it was also crucial to foster the club’s young defensive talent.

“It’s one area that we probably needed to top up a little bit,” he said.

“The guys we’ve got there now are doing a fantastic job and over the last couple of years have been great.

“We are getting a little bit older and we do need to have the young guys coming through, so we’ll make sure we push them through as quickly as we can to get them up and running.

“It’s really important to keep the cycle going.”