Since my last column, we’ve had an influx of young players make their senior debut for the Swans. It really is a pleasing thing from a development point of view that not only have the opportunities come up, but that our young talent has been able to make the most of them and do well.
The senior team has been affected by injury, but it’s been terrific that our young talent has been able to step up and have an impact in their first or second senior game.

Since Dane Rampe made the first debut for the Swans in round one, we’ve been lucky enough to have four other players make their AFL debut this season.

Tommy Mitchell made his debut against Essendon at the SCG back in round 10. Tommy had come off a restricted pre-season and spent a lot of time in the reserves building up his match fitness before he got his senior opportunity. Obviously it was a much-awaited senior debut for Tommy, but he did a very good job. He’s stuck to the team structure and is doing a lot to develop his game as a midfielder and hold his place in the senior team.

Jed Lamb has also done a great job. Early on in the year he got caught on the substitution merry-go-round where his first few games were as the sub, but he has taken his opportunity over the last two weeks getting a full game. He’s worked hard on his performance as a forward, understanding that that’s where his opportunities are at the moment, so he’s done a great job and hopefully he can keep his spot for the rest of the year.

Brandon Jack’s opportunity arose after he played a very good month of footy in the reserves and Lewis Jetta got injured. The senior team needed some pace and that’s something we knew Brandon was going to give. In the Carlton game, Mitch Morton pulled out and that meant Brandon was able to play a full game and then another full game against Melbourne last week. It seemed to be just a matter of him hitting the scoreboard once, because once he hit it, the pressure came off him a bit and he got a lot less worried about not kicking a goal, which we now know he can achieve.

Xavier Richards only had a short senior debut, but it was good to see him get an opportunity.  He keeps telling me that his first kick was a goal assist, but I think Benny McGlynn might argue that he had to tackle a few blokes to get the kick on goal! Xavier has done a really good job and he’s played a variety of different roles within our reserves, including even some time in the ruck. Just how far he’s come since the pre-season and how much he’s learnt has been a really good effort.

There are also a number of other young players who hopefully will be pushing for a place in the senior team as the season rolls on.

One of those players is Tim Membrey, who has had a number of good weeks in the Swans reserves recently. Last week it was good to see him kick a few goals. He had played well the month before without hitting the scoreboard, but it was good to see him kick five goals. He probably could have ended up with a few more than five, but he’s a tremendous shot for goal and he also takes a good mark. He’s worked hard in the last month and has an appetite for work because I think he can see that his opportunity may not be so far away.

Harry Cunningham was flying early in the year under the tutelage of development coach George Stone, but an injury down in Tuggeranong came at a bad time. He probably would have come close to senior selection, but the injury came, so he had to focus on getting over that and then getting back on the park. Last week his inside-midfield work was really good and then after half-time we played him as a half-forward where he could use his run and his pace on the outside, and he was really good up in Newcastle. Hopefully in the back end of the year his pace and his run can help him get another senior game.