The Sydney Swans’ quest for a 10^th-straight finals berth is no longer alive, but young star Callum Mills insists the push for a top-eight finish in 2020 begins now.

The 15^th-placed Swans are sitting three wins outside the top eight with four regular-season games remaining, meaning they’re set to miss finals footy for the first time since 2009.

Watching on as a spectator will be new to the vast majority of Sydney’s squad, but Mills says now isn’t the time to rue what could have been, declaring a finals-footy comeback will begin in Saturday afternoon’s Sydney Derby clash.

“Nothing changes over the remaining rounds. You’ve got to have that hunger to get back to the finals. It’s not going to click when 2020 rolls around, so you’ve got to start producing strong form now. The mentality is to start building momentum as quickly as we can,” Mills told SwansTV.

“We’re really annoyed that we’re not going to play finals footy this year. It’s a shame that we’ve let the club down in that regard. We’ve done such a great job in past years. But you can’t flick a switch and be a finals team next year, so you’ve got to start now.”

One man storming towards 2020 is the emerging Jordan Dawson, who added to a breakout campaign in an exceptional display against the Geelong Cats on Sunday.

The 22-year-old, whose sparkling form was rewarded with a two-year contract extension in June, posted 17 touches and three goals in a new role at half-forward.

A rocky run with injury and wavering form limited the South Australian to just five AFL games over his first three seasons in red and white, but this year he’s played 16 of a possible 18 matches.

Dawson has also shown he’s capable of impacting on the inside of the contest, on a wing, in defence and, as he did on Sunday, at half-forward.

“Jordan is a super player,” Mills said.

“He was playing in the NEAFL and couldn’t quite get a run at it because of injury, but he’s come in to the senior team this year and is playing an absolutely vital role. He’s been absolutely tremendous for us and we’re so thankful that he’s in our side.”

A 32,911-strong crowd flocked to the SCG for the Swans’ second-last home match of the season on Sunday, and Mills had high praise for the Sydney faithful.

“It’s awesome that the fans come out every week,” Mills said.

“It has been a frustrating year but they still turn up which is absolutely tremendous. We’d like to have kicked a few more goals for them to cheer about this year, but hopefully there are some good things around the corner.”