Despite several players suffering disrupted pre-seasons, Andrew Swallow is confident his team’s preparation won’t be affected heading into the NAB Challenge.

The Kangaroos’ skipper is delighted to have seen some key teammates, including Drew Petrie and Robbie Tarrant return to training in recent weeks.

“The good thing is a lot of the guys have been up and running and been doing lots of kilometres,” Swallow said on Wednesday.

“You look at Jack Ziebell and Aaron Black who have come back from shoulder surgery, they’ve done pretty much every running session and are running better than they ever have.

“When you miss large parts of pre-season when you aren’t doing any running at all, it really hurts you. It won’t take them long to get back in and mix it with the rest of the boys.”

Having missed the start of the 2014 season with an achilles injury, Swallow understands the need to maintain a solid fitness base.

“Hopefully for a lot of our guys who have missed bits and pieces of the pre-season, they can build into it and have a strong second half of the year,” he said.

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With the midfielder’s new deal keeping him at the club until the end of the 2018 season, Swallow is “loving footy”.

Feeling fit and ready to go, the focus now switches to going one step further than last year.

“It’s hard to get there, it’s hard to win one (a Premiership), but that’s the thing that gets you up every morning – the drive to win a flag.

“I’m really happy with where the club is heading right now.”