Pre-season WAFLW Camp

Preparations are ramping up for the 2023 WAFLW season for Swan Districts and coach Adam Dancey has been delighted with what came out of last week's pre-season camp to Point Walter.

Dancey is entering his third season in charge of the Swan Districts' WAFLW teams and after reaching a Grand Final and preliminary final in his first two years in charge, is looking to further oversee the growth and development of the women's program as a whole.

While winning is a focus, developing a strong culture where all the players involved feel embraced, supported and part of a strong team environment is crucial, and that's where a camp like this past weekend becomes so invaluable.

The Swans' WAFLW team has been hard at training over pre-season, but the camp at Point Walter was a crucial step ingetting ready for the 2023 season in terms of building that chemistry and trust within the playing group, doing some bonding and bridging that gap between players and coaches.

Dancey couldn’t have been more delighted with how the weekend turned out with the playing group and coaching staff alike.

"It went really well actually. The girls sort of led it and they had some outcomes that we'd discussed with the leadership regarding our connection and what we wanted to put to them," Dancey said.

"We gave them some space and freedom to come up with the values aligned with the club's values, but how it looks specifically for us. They did that really well, they were really competent and got a lot of that work done.

"It was a good opportunity to just get away from footy as well. We didn’t specifically do anything football based, it was all about how we connect as a group and they all seemed to really enjoy it."

The camp included an amazing race activity, a trademark/values session, a quiz night, a nutrition education session, football education session and then a bit of fun and competitive action.

However, more importantly for Dancey was the chance for the group to get away from football, get to know one another a bit better, build on that trust and chemistry, and he feels it's a crucial aspect of building into the new season.

"It's extremely important and I think more so now that we have generations coming through with so much social media and looking for that constant and instant recognition and validation through that," Dancey said.

"We really need to understand one another because of the different generations and we don’t always need to agree or see everything the same, but we have to be able to sit down and talk about the differences and put things in place, and understand what it means for us.

"We just need to understand where each other is coming from so it's extremely important that we do that at something like the camp ahead of the season."

Dancey has already seen the benefits this week back at training with what the camp has done in terms of bringing the players and coaching group closer together, and he's looking forward to now ramping up for the season to get underway in early March.

"I think that's the case that you notice an immediate difference," Dancey said.

"Myself and a couple of the other coaches who were there as well seized that opportunity to talk to the girls outside of the footy environment as well. You hear more about their lives and career aspirations, and those things, so you're breaking that barrier down a little bit.

"By doing that the girls feel a bit more connected to you and are more comfortable to come and talk to you about whatever they need to.

"Even just this week, at the first session back we had four or five girls in the coaches' office with us laughing and joking so I think this was a really good way for us to break those barriers down even further."