Luke Williams | Off-season sessions allow everyone to refocus

Head coach Luke Williams hopes having players return to Fairwood during the off-season will help focus minds ahead of his first full pre-season in charge.

Over a two-week period, different groups from the Swans squad have gone through medical testing and training drills at the halfway point between the end of the 2023-24 campaign and the start of preparations for the next.

Each player was given a personalised programme to follow during the off-season, and the mid-break return to SA1 allowed staff and players to monitor their progress.

Williams was pleased by the attitude and application of his players, and hopes coming back into the football environment will just sharpen minds as pre-season proper draws nearer and nearer.

“I think it’s about refocus, and it’s about trying to re-engage their minds that pre-season is starting soon,” he said.

“They have a few weeks where they can start to increase a bit what they do, they can make good decisions about returning to being a full-time footballer again.

“Of course, they needed their downtime, that goes without saying because it is an incredibly stressful and physically tough league that we compete in.

“So they all deserve that, but this is a good chance to re-engage with them and for them to refocus.

“I am sure there might have been a few choice words when we told them about coming back during the off-season, but I have no complaints about how they have approached these weeks.

“The focus has been there and the standard of the training has been good. We wanted the chance to see where the players are and understand anything that will need to be addressed before we fully start pre-season because we want to be ready to go. 

“Now they have a little bit more time but hopefully this period will help us come back with a new motivation.”