They'll be hoping to improve on their semifinal performance from last year, but Swans player coach Simon Treloar said a good start would be vital, as five of their first seven games are played at Goodhew Park.

"We probably have to do a similar thing to what we did last year," Treloar said. "We need to capitalise at the start of the season and set ourselves up for the year ahead."

The Belconnen Magpies and Cootamundra Blues have moved to a higher league while the ADFA Rams, ANU Griffiths, Ainslie Tricolors, Batesman Bay Sea Eagles, Googong Hogs, Molonglo Juggernaughts and Woden Blues enter the competition.

While the Swans haven't played or have seen much of the new teams before, Treloar said they would treat them like the old teams. "We'll prepare the same for all teams and back ourselves," he said. "We want to be consistent with the brand of footy that we play and make we sure put in a consistent effort every week."

Training has been going on for about a month and everything is going smoothly, but Treloar would like to see numbers increase. "During training, we've been coming up with game plans and are trying to get our structure right going into the year," he said. "There's been a lot of positives out of the first month. Numbers are alright, but we'd like a few more. If there are any blokes out there who would like to come along and have a run, they are more than welcome to, but we're definitely building, which is good."

The Swans start their season against the Googong Hogs on Saturday, April 4 at Goodhew Park.

They play every team twice besides the Rams, Eagles, Juggernaughts and the Kangaroos.

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