It’s a difficult task facing Sydney Swans rookie Dylan McNeil - trying to break into the senior line-up in a midfield that is full of members of the Club’s leadership group. But he is doing everything in his power to try to get a start.

The 20-year-old, in his second year at the Swans, has been one of the Swans Reserves’ best throughout the 2011 season, having played in 15 of the side’s 16 games.

It has been a year of improvement for McNeil, who had a strong pre-season, which included shaving 45 seconds off his PB in the time trial. This set a strong foundation for the midfielder who credits his impressive form this year to the hard work undertaken prior to the season commencing.

“It’s made a big difference in the season to be able to run that bit harder and I’m looking to improve that even more,” McNeil said.

He hopes to continue his improvement for the remainder of the season, with a big focus on the defensive side of his game.

“I have been trying to improve on a lot of things like my spread and my tackling, so I think I have improved on that so I’m happy in that regard.

“(My goal is to) just keep that consistent four quarter effort, make sure I’m making my tackles - that’s a real focus for me - and everything really flows from there.”

After having Brett Kirk as a mentor in 2010, Kieren Jack has taken McNeil under his wing this year, and who better to learn off than last year’s Bob Skilton Medallist?

“It’s good, I’ve built a good relationship with him so far, he’s a two way midfielder so it’s good for me to learn off him.”

McNeil was again one of the Reserves’ best on Sunday at Dairy Farmers Park, with the side claiming a 113-point win over the Queanbeyan Tigers. With three wins now from the past four games, McNeil says he is pleased with the team’s effort in last Sunday’s match.

“It was good. It was a bit better performance this week, a bit more of a four quarter performance, except a bit in the last quarter where we tried to play like millionaires. It was a more consistent game from the boys.”

McNeil hopes the side carries form similar to this into its next two encounters before finals commence in three week’s time. First up though is their game against the Brisbane Lions Reserves at Blacktown Olympic Park on Saturday. 

“That will be a tough encounter with an actual AFL reserves side coming down here. We’ve got to get the win, we beat them last time,” McNeil said.

“I think we are on top of the ladder now with two games to go, Brisbane and Ainslie. They are two tough games. If we win them, it will be good going into the finals.”