Get excited, Sydney Swans fans.

Midfield bull Josh Kennedy has returned for his 14th AFL pre-season in prime condition.

Kennedy was among the senior Swans who returned on Monday for the pre-season grind, joining the club’s second- to fifth-year players whose off-season break had ended a fortnight earlier.

The Sydney co-captain is 31 and likely to celebrate his 250th AFL match in Round 4 next season, but if Friday’s words are of any indication, he’s on the verge of producing another stellar campaign in 2020.

“I’m in good shape and am looking forward to this pre-Christmas block,” Kennedy told SwansTV.

“Hopefully I can put in a good base to set me up for a good year. A big part of getting through a full season is this period in time.

“I didn’t have any surgeries or operations over the break, and I’m making sure I get the kilometres in the legs and do a lot of extras. It’s important to keep the body as healthy as possible, whether it’s with recovery or Pilates or yoga and all of that sort of stuff.”

Kennedy and fellow co-captains Luke Parker and Dane Rampe are faced with the challenge of leading their team back to finals footy in 2020.

This year’s 15th-placed finish saw Kennedy miss finals footy for the first time in his 233-match stint with the Swans.

Parker fell short of September action for the first time in his decorated 195-game career, while it was the first time a finals series had eluded Rampe in his 159-match career.

But Kennedy believes his young team has the firepower to win back a spot in the top eight in 2020.

“We’re really excited. It’s a new challenge. We’re starting earlier than what we’re used to,” Kennedy said.

“We want to get back up the ladder. We’re confident we’ve got the players to be able to do that and we’re confident we have the drive to get back up there.

“The young boys have set the standard in their first two weeks and that gives us older guys energy and motivation to try to keep up. The young boys have set the tone, we’re jumping on board and hopefully we can carry that through over the next five weeks.”