SYDNEY Swans midfielder Kieren Jack says he is not getting caught up in the hype surrounding him and wants to start pre-season training as if he were a reserves player.

At the recent club best and fairest, Jack, 21, took out the Swans Rising Star award, tying with Craig Bird for the honour.

By season's end, Jack had 23 games to his name, bagged a NAB AFL Rising Star nomination (on West Coast's Daniel Kerr no less) and amassed 284 possessions and 11 goals.

It was a season that exceeded his goals at the start of the year.

"I spoke to Kirky [Brett Kirk] my mentor at the start of the year and told him my goal was to play five games and push for senior selection," Jack said.

"He said it was achievable. Who would've thought I'd have played 23 games."

But the son of rugby league legend Garry Jack says he wants to head into preparations for 2009 with the same mindset he took into season 2008.

"People talk about things but you can't get caught up in the hype. This year's been a great year, an amazing year for me, but I'm not getting caught up in it.

"I'm going to do exactly what I did at the start of last season, just train hard and pretend that I'm a reserves player and try to earn my spot in the team.

"Hopefully things can turn out even better than this year."

The midfielder, who was used effectively as a tagger, was dropped for the round 20 clash against reigning premier Geelong.

Coach Paul Roos elected to give him a game in the reserves to revitalise the youngster after playing so many consecutive games. Jack says he needed it. And it did help him get back on track.

"The week after I probably played some good footy, so with that week off [in the reserves] it was about enjoying it, getting the ball and doing what I was doing last year in the twos which was going after the footy.

"I think got lost in the back-end of this season. I was just tagging blokes doing the same thing without going after the ball. I went back to the twos and luckily I got straight back into the seniors."

Jack says tagging an opposition danger man can be a difficult balancing act.

Throughout the year the Swans captain Kirk was able to provide him with some useful advice.

"Kirky said just go back to what you were doing before, which was being hard and relentless.

"I sort of lost that a little bit. It was a gradual thing. You sort of get caught up in running after someone when you're there to win the ball."

The Swans will tick over during the off-season with three sessions per week until pre-season training begins on November 10 and a week later for the whole squad.

"I have had time to reflect and it's been an amazing year," says Jack. "Something out of this world.