Sydney Swans defence coach Tadhg Kennelly wants Lewis Melican to keep a trio of club greats in mind as the young key defender continues on his rise.

Leo Barry, Ted Richards and Heath Grundy were a coach’s dream and opposition forwards’ nightmare for more than a decade, but Kennelly insists patience was pivotal to their journeys to stardom.

“Lewis is a developing, young key defender and it’s the hardest position to play in,” Kennelly told SwansTV.

“They often take time to develop. If you look at the key defenders this club has had – blokes like Heath Grundy, Ted Richards and Leo Barry – they all had starts to their careers that were up and down. It takes time to understand and develop as a key defender against the best forwards in the country.”

Barry played 237 AFL matches for Sydney in the years spanning 1995-2009, with the clear highlight of his career his iconic game-saving mark in the 2005 Grand Final.

The dual All Australian clamped some of the most damaging key forwards the game has seen, including David Neitz, Matthew Lloyd and Nick Riewoldt.

Richards began his 261-match career with Essendon but donned the red and white between 2006 and 2016, building himself into a backman feared and respected by all key opposition forwards.

And Grundy was tireless in his 256-game career, featuring in the most matches league-wide between 2009 and 2017 despite squaring off with gun names like Nick and Jack Riewoldt, Jonathan Brown and Tom Hawkins.

A luckless injury run limited Melican to just three senior matches in 2018, but the 2014 draftee fought back to play 17 games this year.

“The most pleasing thing for Lewy is he got through the year and his body’s in good shape,” Kennelly said.

“It’s been frustrating for him because he hadn’t been able to get through a full year since he arrived at the football club.”

Melican sees season 2019 as a personal success.

“For me to get a full year of footy under my belt is a massive tick for the year,” Melican told SwansTV.

“While I probably didn’t play as well as I could have, just to get the body right and play every week in the AFL or NEAFL was massive.”