Don't miss any of the news involving the Swans as we bring you everything from the newspapers around the country on Friday 22nd April, 2016.
A Swans' family affair
Neil Cordy
Daily Telegraph, April 22
IT’S always been a family affair at the Swans and a new initiative is all about keeping their little cygnets in the fold — and showing them some appreciation for all the support they gave their footballer fathers.
The Swans yesterday launched a Father-Son/Daughter Academy, inviting the children of past players to come along and have a kick and lunch with the current team.
Former midfielder and Swans co-captain Brett Kirk and his wife Hayley made a significant contribution to the first gathering at the SCG with their five children, Indhi, 11, twins Tallulah and Memphys, 9, Sadie, 7, and Skout, 3.
“It’s a great initiative,” Kirk said.
“It’s not about identifying whether the kids of ex-players have elite talent — this is more about keeping the connection alive and creating the family club you want.”
A loyal brand of youngsters
Richard Hinds
Daily Telegraph, April 22
THE way some Victorian clubs spun it, the Swans had not so much set up an academy as a laboratory. A place where the cream of Sydney’s young athletes would be transformed into super players who would dominate the AFL.
Even as the southerners won the political battle and the Swans were forced to trade draft picks to keep their hard-won converts, such propaganda was farfetched.
Only a tiny handful of the current 650 academy members – and 1500 who have been through the program – will play the game at any decent level. Just a few athletic freaks will be transformed into AFL stars.
But as academy graduate Isaac Heeney kicked four goals and fellow 19 year-old alumni Callum Mills gathered 23 possessions amid the hyper-intensity of the Swans engrossing clash with Adelaide last Saturday, the greatest hopes – and opposition fears – for the much-publicised development program seemed well-founded.
The struggle with other football codes and sports for so-called “first choice’’ athletes remains intense. Heeney and Mills might yet prove to be two-in-a-generation local converts. But the ability of the Swans Academy to identify and re-program top-flight AFL players seems proven.
As importantly for the Swans current prospects, the academy has not just produced two AFL players. It has produced two Swans players. This subtle distinction might help explain Heeney and Mills’ rapid progress as much as their athletic gifts.
“Up until about 15 years old we’re just drilling into them the real basics of the game because most of them haven’t played much,’’ says Swans coach John Longmire of the academy curriculum. “They’re playing rugby league at lunch time so it’s about getting a ball into their hands.’’
Swap and go race
Neil Cordy
Daily Telegraph, April 22 
SWANS great Tadhg Kennelly says Eagles recruit Lewis Jetta will be completely shut out of Saturday’s heavyweight clash between Sydney and West Coast at the SCG.
And Kennelly is adamant the Swans got the best of the deal to swap Jetta for West Coast’s Callum Sinclair.
“Definitely the Swans have done the better deal,” Kennelly told The Daily Telegraph.
“I can guarantee Jetts will have no impact on the weekend because the Swans will shut him down.
“Jetts will be fired up and he plays the ground well, he’ll be giving the Eagles inside information on the Swans as will Sinclair on the Eagles.”
Who will win the Sinclair, Jetta trade?
Andrew Wu
SMH, April 22
At face value, Sydney did not come out on top in the Lewis Jetta and Callum Sinclair trade with West Coast. One is a premiership-winner with pace to burn and a lethal kick, the other a promising ruckman coming off his best season though yet to post the runs on the board, but such is the difficulty in finding AFL-standard big men this can end up becoming another astute trade by the Swans.
Sydney had a sense last year that the Western Australian born and raised Jetta would head home but used his imminent departure as an opportunity to replenish their ruck stocks, which were about to be tested further with the retirement of Mike Pyke.
Half decent ruckmen are hard to find, particularly since the AFL expanded to 18 teams. Clubs are prepared to look in other sports and overseas to land one. Even the modestly talented can find it hard to get out of the AFL system.
Consider the career of Gold Coast's Daniel Currie. He found his way to his third club in the summer after spending eight years with Sydney and North Melbourne for a grand total of four games. Or for that matter former Port Adelaide, Greater Western Sydney, Essendon and current Eagle Jonathan Giles, who has been on an AFL list for 10 years for 54 games.
Memo newby clubs: prepare for 'noise' and knives
Samantha Lane
The Age, April 22
The fast-rising Gold Coast Suns and Greater Western Sydney Giants should prepare for the same backlash from rival clubs that Sydney has endured.
But Swans chairman Andrew Pridham says short-sighted criticism, especially from Victorian clubs, risks damaging the code.
Pridham's view, formed after first-hand experience of Sydney being attacked for its talent academy and now dismantled cost-of-living allowance, comes as the Gold Coast and Greater Western Sydney have never sat prettier at round four.
The Suns and Swans are 3-1, third and fifth on the ladder. The Giants are 2-2 but - more significantly - the 86-point round four winners are ominously improved in their fifth year in the competition.
The AFL's move on Tuesday to clarify rules for northern club talent academies, and outstanding weekend performances by Sydney academy products Isaac Heeney and Callum Mills provide further backdrop to Pridham's pointed comments.
"The spotlight comes on to clubs that are successful, and it's no surprise that with the Giants now successful people are suddenly focusing on them.
"The same will happen to Gold Coast and any benefits they've got. If suddenly Port Adelaide start getting all these stars from China, clubs will start saying it's not fair," Pridham told Fairfax Media.
"There's a tendency for people to look for reasons of advantage; about why other clubs are successful, rather than focusing on what they can do to be successful.
Eagles duo step aside
Daily Telegraph, April 22
MARK Hutchings and Jackson Nelson have been dropped from West Coast’s side ahead of Saturday’s blockbuster clash with Sydney at the SCG.
The pair make way for returning stars Matt Priddis and Sharrod Wellingham, and will line up for WAFL outfit East Perth against Perth at Lathlain Park on Saturday.
Priddis was a late withdrawal from last Friday night’s 68-point win over Richmond with a groin problem, while Wellingham, who became a key part of the team’s backline last season, made his return through the WAFL last Saturday following a lingering pre-season knee injury.
Swans coach John Longmire and GWS Giants coach Leon Cameron back AFL grand final golden point
David Sygall
SMH, April 22
The coaches of Sydney's two AFL sides have given their support to the governing body's decision to axe the grand final replay, with one suggesting a result on the day would suit non-Melbourne sides and the other saying he just hopes his team is in that position one day.
The AFL announced earlier this week that in the event of a drawn season decider, the teams would play two five-minute halves of extra time plus time on and, if the scores were still level, the premiership would be won with the next score, whether it was a goal or behind.
Swans coach John Longmire said he agreed with the move as it would ensure teams from outside Melbourne would not be placed in a position where they would have to travel back to the city the following week.
"Only talking from [the point of view] of clubs outside of Melbourne - and I assume I can't speak on behalf of all the clubs outside of Melbourne - but I certainly consider it a step forward in regards to not playing the week after," Longmire said.
"If you were coming from Perth I'd imagine it would be really difficult to play in a drawn grand final, go back and then come back again. I just think, from that avenue alone, it makes it a good decision. I think it's a real positive for the game."
Irish import Colin O'Riordan follows in footsteps of Swans champion Tadhg Kennelly
David Sygall
SMH, April 21
It sounds like a familiar story. A young Irishman with a career in Gaelic football at his feet arrives at the Swans playing centre half-back and quickly turns heads with his attitude on and off the field.
It makes sense, therefore, that Colin O'Riordan has forged a strong bond with former Sydney champion Tadhg Kennelly, who in 2005 became the first Irishman to win an AFL premiership medal.
O'Riordan, a fiercely determined 20-year-old from County Tipperary – and a former Gaelic football young player of the year – has stunned the Swans coaching staff, especially reserves coach Rhyce Shaw, with his early performances in the NEAFL, grabbing plenty of ball, kicking goals and showing an unexpected sense for the game.
He lives around the corner from Kennelly and regularly visits for dinner, where they chat about goings-on back home, life in Australia and the exciting but difficult journey that lies ahead if O'Riordan is to follow in Kennelly's footsteps.
"I suppose my journey was quite similar," Kennelly says. "It helped me talking to Jimmy Stynes once or twice a week when I was starting out.
"It just helps hearing the accent, hearing the stories about where you come from. We talk about about Gaelic football and hurling, things going on at home. It's a good connection."
