Ryan O’Keefe, Nick Malceski and Ed Barlow are among the familiar faces leading the pack but one name will bring a smile to any Swans supporter’s face: Lewis Johnston.
Assistant coach Peter Berbakov and emerging key forward Jesse White both have nominated Johnston as one of the standout trainers in the first month of the Swans’ pre-season.
It’s an impressive show of intent from the 192cm South Australian as he attempts to make up for lost time.
The highly-rated forward was drafted by the Swans with their first pick in the 2008 NAB AFL Draft at No. 12 and showed promising signs throughout his first pre-season.
Some strong performances with the Swans’ reserves early in the year had some pundits talking of a senior debut for the South Australian early in the year.
However, a serious foot injury suffered at a training session in April put paid to that idea.
Johnston underwent surgery to reattach a ruptured tendon to one of his toes, spending three months off the training track and failing to play another game.
Despite his setback, the break looks to have done the tall youngster with a shock of blonde hair the world of good.
Swans coaching co-ordinator John Longmire echoed Berbakov and White’s praise but cautioned that the developing forward was still adapting to the training loads required to play senior football.
“He’s still learning in regards to what his body can tolerate and how far he can push it, but from that point of view, he’s doing everything that’s been asked of him so far.
“We’re hoping that he gets a really big pre-season under his belt and he’ll need that to play senior football next year at some stage.”
Longmire said Johnston’s injury shouldn’t necessarily be viewed as a setback; rather, the lengthy layoff had given the 18-year-old a chance to add some much-needed strength and size.
“Ideally, you’d like [him] to play in the first year but we know that not all players can do that,” Longmire said.
“I think that we’d like to see him play in 2010 and it also would be great to see Daniel Currie play. They’re a couple of players who have potential for us but injuries have prevented that.
“We’re hoping they’re both over that and they can have a big pre-season, which we know stands players in good stead.”
