Swifts coaching panel for 2013 L-R (back) Ben Martin (joint senior), Jamie Britten (reserves), Harry Murray (under 14s); (front) Paul Hanns (joint senior), Nathan Ringin (joint under 17s). Absent: Jakob Davis (joint under 17s).
HDFL - CKS Swifts have confirmed their football coaching panel for season 2013.
Paul Hanns and Ben Martin are joint playing coaches of the senior side while defender Justin Thomas has been promoted to assistant coach.
Jaimie Britten returns as leader of the reserves, while Nathan Ringin and Jakob Davis will share the role as under 17s joint coach.
Harry Murray has been named under 14s coach and his assistants are Maurice Billi, Mal Russell and Wayne Taylor.
Swifts joint coach, Paul Hanns says the team is looking to develop its younger players, giving them more Horsham District Football League senior games this season.
Hanns has named several players who are in line for a senior role, including Zach Salmi, Josh Newton, Liam Scott and Hayden Thompson.
"We're trying to breed at the club (a culture of) using juniors coming up and help to develop them individually as best that we can and not let them go backwards by sitting in juniors," Hanns said.
Salmi has grown over the summer and filled out and may be used as a key position player in the forward line, although Hanns said he will prefer to see the youngster on the flanks.
Both Newton and Thompson are likely to feature in a wing/midfield role.
"Josh is fast and has got a good engine plus he's fit and Hayden is also quick and explosive. He will be handy on the wing," Hanns said.
"Liam has played a number of roles in juniors and we'll be looking at him to do a similar thing."
Hanns said Swifts are looking at recruiting key position players, particularly forwards after losing Brett Hargreaves (Lakes Entrance) and Julian Carr (East Geelong).
They also face the prospect of a season without Jeremy Joiner, who has indicated he is retiring while Adam McGaffin and Hayden Phillips have also left the club due to the burden of travel.
It is not all bad news for Swifts as their pre-season continues to gather momentum ahead of the 2013 season.
"Numbers have been pretty good, there's been around 20 odd players nearly every night of training - even on those hot nights.
"We are struggling to get consistency at this stage with different faces turning up from week to the next but out of each individual, it has been pretty good."
Training moved back to Tuesday and Thursday nights at North Park last week.
Swifts have been mixing their training up by doing circuit work at the gym and dropping their fitness testing.
"We're doing more ball work and starting as early as we can because turnovers still leave stains," Hanns said.
"We think we can get fitness within our skills drills."
Joint coach Ben Martin, who signed on with Swifts in August last year, has been taking training sessions as he continues his comeback to senior football.
"Ben's been good," Hanns said.
"He has taken it on board and the boys seem to be taking to him. He's fitted in a treat so far."
Martin underwent a knee reconstruction in February last year and is looking on track for a return early this season.
"His fitness is good, he's in the top half of the pack in most runs," Hanns said.
"The next test is to see how he goes in competitive footy and being knocked off balance on that knee."
Swifts are set to play two practice matches this month.
They went up against Beaufort at Learmonth on Sunday and then they travel to Geelong to play Belmont on March 23.
Last year's HDFL preliminary finalists will be looking to competitive in both matches.
"Just going on our round one effort last season (when Swifts suffered a shock 48 point loss to Noradjuha Quantong), we weren't as fit as we should have been or as ready as we needed to be," Hanns said.
"So we'll take these a bit more seriously and hopefully we'll be running at full tilt come round one."
