Swans ready to bolt out of gates
Andrew Wu
SMH, 21 March 
As seasoned duo Jarrad McVeigh and Dan Hannebery race the clock, mature age rookie Robbie Fox is shaping as a round one bolter for Sydney.
The Swans are unlikely to unveil any of their draftees from last year but the unheralded Fox is firmly in the frame to line up against West Coast on Sunday.
The 24-year-old played the last of his three games against the Eagles last year before knee and ankle injuries ruined his chances of taking part in the Swans' surge to September.
Fox, a rookie selection in 2016, was drafted as a forward who could push into the midfield but has been tried in defence during the preseason.
He impressed in the first JLT Series match against Brisbane with 24 possessions followed by 18 against Greater Western Sydney.
Blessed with power and speed, the Swans will be looking to Fox to play as a line-breaking rebounding defender - a role they have not been able to fill since Rhyce Shaw's retirement in 2015.
The Swans have mined the rookie draft for bargain-basement gold with much success.
Kieren Jack, Nick Smith and Dane Rampe are all graduates who have won All Australian honours, Heath Grundy has become a premiership backman while Tom Papley, Nic Newman and Lewis Melican are recent finds who have shown promise.
The Swans will wait until after a hit out on Thursday to make a call on McVeigh and Hannebery, who both trained at the SCG on Tuesday.
Swans’ tough call on duo
Neil Cordy
Daily Telegraph, 21 March
DAN Hannebery and Jarrad McVeigh are making a last-ditch bid to prove their fitness for Sunday’s season opener against West Coast at the newly built Perth Stadium.
The pair have made dramatic progress over the last fortnight after looking highly likely to miss the trip west with calf injuries.
Hannebery hasn’t played in any of the Swans’ pre-season or JLT Series matches while McVeigh has played some competitive footy.
“Macca had a really good pre-season including some match play,” Swans coach John Longmire said.
“He’s done a fair bit of work. He missed just under four weeks and has been back training for a couple of weeks. He is not out of this week and Hanners has had a really good 10 days of training with the team.
“He’s been reaching intense levels and his GPS numbers at the weekend were of a really high standard.”
Swans to tap into Cox's Eagles knowledge
Adrian Warren
AAP, March 21
Sydney vice-captain Dane Rampe has welcomed the likely return of West Coast star Nic Naitanui for Sunday's opening round AFL clash in Perth.
But the Swans have yet to quiz his former teammate and ruck colleague, Dean Cox, who now works as Sydney's ruck coach.
Athletic Eagles ruckman Naitanui missed all of last season with a knee injury, but has come through a WAFL practice match and game simulation.
"Hopefully he does get a return because it's exciting to see him play and we always love playing on the best players in the game and he's definitely one of them," Rampe said.
Gun Swans Dan Hannebery and Jarrad McVeigh still in the mix to face West Coast
Shayne Hope
The West Australian, March 21
Sydney coach John Longmire says injured duo Dan Hannebery and Jarrad McVeigh are still chances to take on West Coast in Sunday’s historic first home-and-away season match at Optus Stadium.
Both premiership midfielders have been nursing calf muscle injuries, however, Longmire said they had been pressing their selection cases on the training track.
“They’ve been training and training really well, so that’s a really good sign” Longmire told RSN.
“We’ve got a training session today and a training session Thursday to sit back and make those decisions.
“They’re putting their cases forward in a training sense, which is all you can ask.
“We’ll make that call on Thursday.”
West Coast ruckman Nic Naitanui firming for round one selection
Herald Sun, March 16
WEST Coast ruckman Nic Naitanui has taken another important step towards a round-one AFL return after making it through a tough training session. Eagles coach Adam Simpson said Naitanui looked good during Friday’s 40-minute match-simulation session, which was followed by another block of training. Naitanui, after a successful return last week via a WAFL practice match, is firming to play against Sydney on March 25 at Perth’s new Optus Stadium. “Medically, he’s fine. Now it’s just about getting the conditioning element ticked off,” Simpson said after Friday’s club season launch. “He played last week for 60 minutes. We trained him up today — we had an 80-minute session.
“He seems to have gotten through that. Now it’s a bit like every week — it’s how he pulls up.
“If he pulls up well, we’ll consider him for selection.
“He’s delivering everything we’re asking of him. Now it’s just going to be whether it’s round one or round two.” Naitanui hasn’t played an AFL match since the round-22 win over Hawthorn in 2016 when he ruptured the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee. Simpson has moved quickly to play down any concerns surrounding forward Josh Kennedy, who has undergone a minor procedure on his leg.
Nic Naitanui declares he’s ‘ready to go’ for West Coast’s season opener
Bridget Lacy
Perth Now, March 21
STAR West Coast ruckman Nic Naitanui has declared himself ready to go for the club’s historic season opener against Sydney at Optus Stadium.
Naitanui, 27, was put through his paces in an intense training session last Friday and will train at the new stadium with his teammates tomorrow before getting the final tick of approval for his long-awaited return from a knee reconstruction.
“I probably feel about 90, 95 per cent, but as good as I’m ever going to be,” Naitainui told Seven News.
“I’m not going to go out there underdone and not having confidence I can play footy so I’m feeling ready to go.
“What we tried to do is mimic a game-like load and then try and do a little bit extra. You do have a little bit of protection once you’re out there playing, knowing that you can go through some of the adversity that you’d overcome in a game. To go out there and get smashed last Friday was enjoyable but it was really hard work as well.”
Three Eagles shape for round one debuts
Perth Now, March 21
FREMANTLE yesterday revealed Andrew Brayshaw and Bailey Banfield are locked in for their AFL debuts in round one.
But it seems West Coast are determined to make us wait that little bit longer before we find out who will pull on the blue-and-gold jumper for the first time in an AFL outing this weekend.
Eagles coach Adam Simpson confirmed on Seven News that his side would blood “at least one or two, maybe even three” first-gamers against the Swans at Optus Stadium on Sunday.
The West Australian’s Mark Duffield believes it will indeed be three – if not four – with a trio of potential debutants ready to go.
Speaking on the latest edition of the Duff and Quarters podcast alongside The Sunday Times’ Glen Quartermain, Duffield listed the three players he understands are ‘locks’ to line up on Sunday.
“Barring injury between now and Sunday, I think you can take (Liam) Ryan, (Jake) Waterman and (Daniel) Venables to the bank,” Duffield said.
“The fact that Ryan’s played all their games… he’s shown glimpses.
“Every game you see (Venables) play for West Coast, you see him do something he didn’t do the previous week.”
Duffield said Brayden Ainsworth and Francis Watson remained in the mix to make it four debutants for the Eagles.
