Don't miss any of the news involving the Swans as we bring you everything from the newspapers around the country on Friday 15th April, 2016.

Mitchell now a major player
Neil Cordy
Daily Telegraph, April 15

THE Fab Four has become the Fantastic Five for the Sydney Swans.

Tom Mitchell has picked up where he left off last year to join not only the Swans elite but also the AFL’s.

With Mitchell’s progress the Swans ‘Fab Four’ of Luke Parker, Josh Kennedy, Kieren Jack and Dan Hannebery has gained an extra member, with Mitchell’s numbers now the equal and in some cases better than his well-known teammates.

According to Champion Data, Mitchell is now in the competition’s highest echelons in no less than seven statistical categories, Ranking Points (122.7 per game), Uncontested Possessions (20.3), Goals (1.3), Score Assists (1.7), Score Involvements (8.3), Pressure Acts (22) and Tackles (8.3).

And he is sure to be in the thick of things in Saturday night’s match of the round against the Crows at Adelaide Oval.

Swans have every reason to be smiling but playing the Crows in Adelaide is another story all together
Richard Hinds
Daily Telegraph, April 15

AS ever, the Sydney Swans’ cheeky chairman Andrew Pridham summed up perfectly the club’s early-season contentment on his entertaining Twitter feed.

“1.2 million supporters and over 50,000 members. Next 31 years locked in at the SCG. Team playing really well. Couldn’t be happier.’’

Pridham and the Swans’ ebullient band of supporters have every reason to be cheer cheery. Buddy is back. The peerless entertainer has kicked 12 goals in three games and brought smiles to faces. Most pleasingly, his own.

Luke Parker might be the best player in the competition right now.

The term “elite’’ is worked harder by AFL writers than the Narrandera reserves training balls. But Parker’s combination of devastating stoppage play, goal-scoring threat and spectacular marking belong in the Patrick Dangerfield/Nathan Fyfe category.

The kids are all right. Actually, in the seamless way Callum Mills, Tom Papley and George Hewett have covered for the injured Jarrad McVeigh, Sam Reid and Gary Rohan, they look better than that.
 

Swans selection race heats up
Andrew Wu
SMH, April 15

Unbeaten Sydney have named arguably their strongest team of the year after handing captain Jarrad McVeigh an automatic pass into the team for the trip to Adelaide.

Competition for places in the Swans 22 is heating up as the club's best players make their way back from injury.

In a sign of Sydney's growing depth, the Swans left out youngsters Zak Jones and George Hewett, who can consider themselves extremely unlucky not to be facing the Crows. Dean Towers is also back, after a week in the twos.

McVeigh's return means the Swans, on top of the ladder entering round four, have only Sam Reid and Gary Rohan sidelined from their best 22.

McGlynn moves on from injuries
Adam Curley
AFL.com.au, April 14

Sydney Swans veteran Ben McGlynn says he's used his injury-riddled 2015 season to drive him this year as he enters the twilight of his career.

McGlynn managed just nine games for the Swans last season thanks to a horror run of calf and hamstring complaints that started in the pre-season, and was limited to just three appearances after round nine.

The 30-year-old made it back to play in the Swans' finals losses to Fremantle and North Melbourne, but the team's straight sets exit only compounded what was a terrible 12 months.

The zippy onballer had a career-best season in 2014 when he polled 12 Brownlow medal votes after averaging over 20 possessions per game and kicking 24 goals, and says his poor run last year has pushed him over a long summer.

Grundy wary of threat posed by in-form Adelaide Crows forwards
Neil Cordy
Daily Telegraph, April 14

HEATH Grundy has answered every challenge thrown at him this season but there will be none bigger job than containing the best offence in the competition, the Adelaide Crows, on Saturday night.

Under the guidance of new coach Don Pyke the Crows have rebounded from the loss of superstar midfielder Patrick Dangerfield and played an electrifying and high-scoring brand of football.

They have goal scoring options everywhere — livewire Eddie Betts, mobile big man Josh Jenkins and the mercurial Taylor Walker, even the underrated Tom Lynch once bagged 10 goals in a game (round seven 2013).

Grundy will most likely get Jenkins, who is leading the way on 10 goals. The quartet are all in the top 14 goal scorers in the AFL.