Don't miss any of the news involving the Swans as we bring you everything from the newspapers around the country on Monday 18th of April, 2016.
Young Swans stars take pressure in their stride
Neil Cordy
Daily Telegraph, April 18
NOTHING beats a pressure test to see if young players are up to scratch — and that’s just what Swans young guns Isaac Heeney and Callum Mills had in the team’s first loss of the season to Adelaide.
The academy products have played just 22 games between them (Heeney 18, Mills four) but were among Sydney’s best in a pulsating clash on Saturday.
Both played their best games in red and white. Mills showed amazing composure in the heat of the battle, picking up 23 possessions, including 10 contested, and taking eight marks.
Heeney kicked an equal career-best four goals and provided five score assists.
Their impressive form will need to be maintained because Sydney face last year’s grand finalists West Coast at the SCG on Saturday.
“It’s a big game, big crowd and high stakes, and those boys stood up. They played really well,” Swans coach John Longmire said.
Isaac Heeney, Callum Mills show why Sydney Swans Academy was so feared
Andrew Wu
SMH, April 18
It has taken just over a season but Sydney young guns Isaac Heeney and Callum Mills are already showing why rival clubs were up in arms over the Swans Academy.
The Swans' unbeaten start to the season might be over but the teenaged pair proved they are not just stars of the future but capable of making big contributions this year.
Heeney and Mills starred in a game likened by several former premiership greats to a final such was the intensity at which it was played.
All Betts off for Swans in first loss
Neil Cordy
Daily Telegraph, April 17
SYDNEY’S unbeaten run this year came to a breathtaking end last night at the hands of Adelaide in one of the games of the season.
There were 13 lead changes throughout the match in a pulsating end-to-end encounter worthy of a final.
The match wasn’t without controversy with three questionable decisions going against the Swans. The first was a second-quarter goal review, which the umpire had paid as a goal but was overturned on what looked to be inconclusive video evidence.
The second was a call of play-on from a kick in which was judged to be less than 15m. Dane Rampe was caught in a tackle from Eddie Betts, who converted the set shot.
Betts was also involved in a last-quarter goal he was fortunate to be given after he pushed Nick Smith in the back with both hands and no whistle was blown.
After the siren Swans coach John Longmire said: “It was a ripping game of pressure football from both teams.
“The thing that comes out of it was both teams were going flat out. We won two quarters, they won two quarters and they won the last quarter by a bit more than us.
Crows dig deep to defeat fighting Swans
Ashley Porter
Sun Herald, April 17
Adelaide called on every ounce of courage to beat an equally brilliant Sydney Swans by 10 points in a thriller at Adelaide Oval on Saturday night.
In a game where fortunes changed so often, the Crows' miracle man Eddie Betts twice goaled in the dying minutes to stave off a brave Sydney to the roar of the 51,330 home crowd.
This was football at its finest. It had everything – excitement, skills, courage and especially the ability of both sides to shut the game down only to break it open again with a rush of goals.
They kicked 10 goals between them in the first half, and 21 in the second, and not one of them was easy.
It was a remarkable game, and perhaps it will be remembered most by 33-year-old Scott Thompson, who was among the home-town heroes in his 250th AFL game.
Swans defender Dane Rampe relishing leadership challenge
Andrew Wu
SMH, April 16
It's election time at Sydney's training camp in Coffs Harbour; Dane Rampe does not know it yet but his days on the back bench are about to be over. The defender is about to be voted into the Swans' leadership group by his teammates. It's his light bulb moment - he would no longer be just a "normal player".
Rampe had not set out to become a leader but knew at the end of last season when Adam Goodes, Rhyce Shaw and Mike Pyke retired that more would be needed of him. He was no longer the new kid on the block but an established player upon whose actions could shape the club's short-term future.
The Swans have turned over 22 players since Rampe's arrival in 2013. In fact, only 10 of Sydney's premiership-winning team from 2012 remain in the red and white, which gives an idea of where Rampe now sits.
"You're reflecting in the off-season: I'm only 25 but would probably be in the top half of experience in the side, it's just taking more ownership," Rampe, who finished a career-best sixth in the Swans' best and fairest last year, says.
"It's something you realise, you've got to drive the younger blokes. You're looking above you and you've got some great leaders around you, it's a natural progression for some blokes.
McVeigh straight in to help Swans’ Adelaide mission
Neil Cordy
Daily Telegraph, April 16
NO match practice, no worries.
At least that’s Jarrad McVeigh’s attitude ahead of his first game of the year in tonight’s blockbuster against the Crows at Adelaide Oval.
McVeigh hasn’t played a single minute of game time in any grade in the lead up to tonight’s clash after a longer than expected recovery from an off-season knee operation.
But he’s confident he’ll be able to hit the ground running.
“It’s nice to be back,” McVeigh told The Saturday Telegraph. “I feel good, I’ve done a truckload of training and got through that really well.
“Obviously you’d prefer to have some games under your belt but I haven’t done that and I’m confident that I’m ready to go. I’ve done everything I can.
“Ben McGlynn did a job last week in his first game back and I’m planning to do the same thing.”
