Despite still being a teenager himself, Jordan Lockyer was one of the more experienced players in the Swans reserves’ defence during last Saturday’s five-point win over UWS at ANZ Stadium.

While admitting the new-look reserves side would take some to gel together, Lockyer said the Swans new recruits had all stepped up to the challenge, particularly Matt Dick and Xavier Richards who both held down key positions beside him in the back line.

“The reserves side this year is just so different,’ Lockyer told sydneyswans.com.au.

“I’m down in defence with Harry (Cunningham), so we are the main communicators down there.

“We’ve now also got ‘Dicky’ (Matt Dick) and ‘X’ (Xavier Richards) as well as Shane Biggs and Dean Towers who float down there as well, and we’ve all tried to step up this year.

“Last year we had the main group of guys who played week in, week out and had a fair bit of experience, but now we’ve got a whole group of new guys who have to learn the game plan and the structures, so it’s certainly a challenge for them, but they are doing well.”

Lockyer said that the Swans reserves’ first-up victory over UWS was the first hurdle for him and his young team mates, who will take on another AFL-listed side – the Gold Coast Suns reserves – tomorrow at the SCG from 10am.

“Last week was a really good hit-out. We knew UWS would be really tough and they were, and they had a number of good senior players who were unlucky not to get picked in the seniors that week,” he said.

“They hung around for the entire game and in the end it ended up being only one goal in it, so it was pretty tight.

“It was definitely pretty tense at the end. One of their guys had a shot on goal about 20 metres out with two minutes to go, and we gave away a free kick so it got recalled and they kicked the goal, so the margin was just five points at the final siren.

“We just had to make sure we locked down our guys and just had everything organised in our defence and we ended up getting everything right and just hanging on in the end.”

For Lockyer, just getting back into the swing of being a full-time footballer is one of his main aims this season.

After missing the majority of the 2012 season with ongoing hamstring injuries, the 19-year-old bounced back to feature in this year’s NAB Cup campaign before making the reserves team last week.

With a solid pre-season behind him and getting back to full fitness, Lockyer says his next step is now to regain his confidence on field.

“The body is feeling really good and it’s just getting that confidence back in playing footy again,” he said.

“I missed so much footy last year that I think I forgot what it was like to be competitive week in, week out, so it’s definitely just getting that rhythm back.

“Once I get that back and get my confidence back it will be really good for me to string a few games together and see how that goes.”

Tony Armstrong and Dane Rampe will both drop back to the reserves tomorrow following Andrejs Everitt and Craig Bird’s recall to senior duty, while Tom Mitchell will get his first game time of the year in the second half.