A competitive beast of the ilk of Josh Kennedy will always have a burning desire to feature in finals footy.

But while the Sydney Swans co-captain is struggling to watch on as the September script plays out, he believes season 2019 was packed with positives.

“It was a really challenging year in terms of our win-loss ratio and not making the finals. We’d love to be there,” Kennedy told SwansTV.

“But there are clearly a lot of positives to come out of the season with our young players performing well, and also sending off our senior players who hung up the boots. To be able to send them off in the way that we did as a footy club and a wider red-and-white community was really special.

“On a whole we’d love to have made the finals, however there are a lot of positives and I’m pretty excited for the future.

“I’m looking forward to having a bit of a rest and then going again.”

Oliver Florent, George Hewett, Nick Blakey, Jordan Dawson and a host of other young Swans compiled brilliant 2019 campaigns.

Dawson had managed just five AFL games over his first three seasons as a Swan, but a breakthrough 2019 campaign would see him feature in 20 appearances at the top level, justifying his backing with 15 goals and an average of 18.8 disposals and 5.5 marks per match. 

The spotlight was on the older generation as Jarrad McVeigh, Kieren Jack, Heath Grundy and Nick Smith farewelled the footy world at the SCG in Round 23.

On a magical afternoon in Swans history, Sydney enjoyed a 45-point win over St Kilda, McVeigh and Jack booted fourth-quarter goals and all four retiring champions, as well as 300-game milestone man Lance Franklin, were chaired from the ground.

Kennedy produced a best-on-ground performance in the fairytale game, gathering 32 possessions (15 contested), 11 clearances, nine tackles and two goals to earn 10 AFL Coaches Association votes.

Season-wide, the triple Bob Skilton medallist topped the Swans in average contested possessions, clearances and tackles per match.

Sydney midfield coach Dean Cox says it’s important Kennedy continues to make an impact at the contest and in the forward line in season 2020.

“The thing with Josh is that he continues to stay in the elite category for clearances and contested ball around the scramble. It’s something he’s done for the duration of his career,” Cox told SwansTV. 

“But it’s also about spending a little bit of time forward and impacting on the scoreboard.”