We bring you the latest news from the newspapers across the country relating to the Swans in the latest Swans in the media.
New Buddy flies for the Swans
Neil Cordy
Daily Telegraph, March 22
IF DEALING with Lance ‘Buddy’ Franklin at training wasn’t enough for Sydney Swans star Luke Parker he had another Buddy to cope with at a Sydney Swans fan event at Circular Quay.
Six-year-old Buddy McLean was flying high over Parker with some assistance from fellow midfielder Daniel Robinson.
Young Buddy will be at the SCG on Saturday to cheer on Robinson and Parker in Sydney’s season opener against Port Adelaide.
The on-ballers will be looking to get the Swans back on the winners list after last year’s grand final loss to the Western Bulldogs.
“You reflect on last year and then you have to reset,” Parker said.
“It’s a long journey to get back there and we focus on this week. I’m excited about Saturday and hopefully we’ll get a big crowd with the good weather. There will be a few boys making their debut. Having those players come through and show what they can do is an exciting time for the club.”
The Sydney Swans continue to have the right balance of stars and youth to again challenge for the premiership
Neil Cordy
Daily Telegraph, March 22
Dane Rampe is living proof a player can come from nowhere to not just survive but thrive in the AFL. In just over four years the Clovelly local has gone from playing footy for fun in the Sydney Football League to second in command at the Swans. He’s backing his team’s large group of relative unknowns to follow in his footsteps and drive this year’s push for a premiership.
Six of their grand final 22 — Isaac Heeney (38), Callum Mills (22), Zak Jones (31), George Hewett (24), Sam Naismith (13) and Tom Papley (20) — have played less than 40 games.
Throw in Aliir Aliir (13) and one third of the team are well and truly in the inexperienced category.
“We have younger blokes who will go from strength to strength with really good heads on their shoulders,” Rampe said.
“I’m looking forward to seeing what they can do and taking the next step. We’ve got a really good mixture of youth and experience. We’ve got some genuinely talented young players who have played in some very big games.”
The Player
Josh Kennedy
Daily Telegraph, March 22
Ask any AFL player and they will tell you that playing football for their club is a real privilege – certainly each and every time I pull on the red and white jumper that’s not lost on me.
It’s an enormous privilege to play for the Sydney Swans and with it comes a responsibility, to my teammates and to our fans, to be the best that I can be. Our leadership group at the Swans has always taken that one step further, because we see it as our job to encourage and support our entire team to be at their best. Footy really is the sum of the parts.
This year I step out as the Sydney Swans captain and I feel very honoured to have been handed the reins from Kieren and Jarrad. They’re both players I have looked up to as strong, capable and committed leaders.
I haven’t captained a footy team since I was a school and I’m sure I’ve got a lot to learn. Knowing Kieren and Jarrad are both still there to offer support is a great comfort. Dan Hannebery, Luke Parker and Dane Rampe will also be by my side after stepping into the role of vice captains, while Nick Smith and Heath Grundy will round out our leadership group. I couldn’t have asked for a better group of blokes to work with.
Since being named captain I have been asked numerous times about leadership: what sort of leader will you be? It’s a hard one to answer because you’re never sure how people see you.
What I would like is to be seen as a person who leads by example; someone who is fierce on the field and compassionate away from it. I’m a person of action and I try to focus on solutions. There are also a lot of people I can lean on for advice, from my family to the likes of John Longmire, Brett Kirk, Stuart Maxfield and Tom Harley. And having a two-year-old son certainly helps to keep things in perspective.
The season ahead fills me with a genuine sense of excitement. What is lost in the commentary is we have the third youngest list in the competition and we debuted seven players last year, which is amazing for a team that contested the Grand Final.
Helping those players progress will be a focus for me this year, along with guiding our newest recruits. I’m sure it won’t be long before names like Oliver Florent, Will Hayward and Darcy Cameron are on the jumpers on young fans coming to our games.
Game day, round one, is just around the corner. The start of every season comes with a lot of uncertainty – you know you’ve worked so hard over the pre-season but every other team has done the same, all driven by the same goal.
We’re looking forward to the contest and to seeing how we measure up.
The Swans will again rely on a batch of new young recruits but write them off at your peril
Neil Cordy
Daily Telegraph, March 22
Sydney is always in the premiership hunt – expect nothing to change in 2017.
While John Longmire’s success is seldom recognised, this campaign will be on the back of a different crew.
Heeney–Aliir–Mills: it’s “HAM-mer Time”. These youngsters are going to be stars of the AFL.
The uncompromising Swans are the most honest team in the competition. Only the Western Bulldogs were a better contested ball team last season, but the Swans have been this way for years, almost playing finals football every week.
Josh Kennedy had the most contested possessions and clearances but three of his teammates were also ranked in the competition’s top 10 contested possession winners.
The Swans are almost impossible to score against, conceding only 67 points on average, with a relentless one-on-one, fold-back defensive system that is the core of the “Bloods Oath”, an ethos that’s the envy of all.
Swans hopeful Jack gets up for round one
James Buckley
SMH, March 22
Ex-Swans captain Kieren Jack will play the AFL season opener against Port Adelaide on Saturday, should he prove he's shaken off a niggling hip injury.
Jack enjoyed an uninterrupted pre-season until late February when a hip complaint ruled him out of the last two JLT Community Series games. He was rested for the opening pre-season fixture meaning Jack's only decent hit-out before round one came in last month's sweltering intra-club game.
The Swans will be sweating on his fitness with third-year star Isaac Heeney struck down indefinitely with glandular fever and veteran Jarrad McVeigh out of action for at least two more weeks after tearing his calf.
Midfield supremo Luke Parker said Jack would be a welcome addition.
"It'll be good to have him back, his leadership, his aggression up forward, his take and tackle," he said.
"He'll be fine. He was supposed to play in the last game but he had a little bit of soreness. He had the week off last week, and should train fully today and Thursday, he'll be right to go."
Aliir makes emotional African return
Neil Cordy
Daily Telegraph, March 18 
SWANS emerging star Aliir Aliir has made an emotional trip of a lifetime returning to Africa for the first time since he left a Kenyan refugee camp at the age of seven.
The pre-Christmas trip to Kampala in Uganda was for his oldest brother Akolda’s wedding. The gathering was also a massive family reunion where he caught up with 10 of his 12 brothers and sisters, some who he hadn’t seen since his family left a Kenya to move to Australia 16 years ago.
“It was amazing,” Aliir told the Saturday Telegraph.
“I had a lot of flashbacks about the things I used to do. I was watching kids playing soccer in the dirt and making balls out of sticks, to see all that brought back a lot of memories. I would have loved to have stayed a bit longer.”
There were also some new experiences for Aliir as he donned traditional dress for his brother’s wedding.
“That was the first time I’ve worn traditional dress,” Aliir said.
“My brother picked out the wedding clothes. We all wore traditional dress which was great. It has been difficult to go to the weddings in Australia because of my footy commitments.
“It was a new experience and I’m glad I got to do it. The whole family were there except for one of my sisters and one brother.”
Aliir’s exploits on the football field haven’t gone unnoticed by his African-based family but some of them are still struggling to get a handle on just what the AFL is all about.
“They don’t know the game very well, they still think I’m playing soccer,” Aliir said. “I tried to teach them how to handball and kick but they still battle to understand what happens. They are proud of what I’m doing in Australia. We keep in contact.”
