Defender Nick Smith has enlisted the help of the Swans most famous Irishman to help him prepare for Australia’s International Rules Test later this month.
Smith is set to be the only Swan to line up in the one off Test to be played against Ireland at Croke Park in Dublin on November 21.
The squad will travel to New York next week for a training camp and warm up match against a US representative GAA team, before arriving in Dublin in the week of the match.
Former Swans Tadgh Kennelly has taken Smith under his wing with a few private sessions to work on his skills with the round ball.
"Kicking the round ball is something totally different so it is good to have Tadgh in my corner,” Smith said.
"Tadgh has been great as he obviously is pretty good with the round ball himself."
Smith said the biggest benefit from the trip would be training alongside the most elite players in the competition.
“Every training session we did last year was of a really high quality and I think these players that you play with have great training standards,” he said.
“The reason that they are so good is that they have those high training standards so it is good to be amongst that.”
In Perth last year, Australian reclaimed the Cormac McAnallen Cup with a 10-point victory over the Irish.
Smith played a key lock down role out of defence and looked at home in controlling the round ball out of the back line, a role he doesn’t see changing.
“It is hard to see myself getting away from being a lock down defender as I do week in and week out,” he said.
“Last year I played deep in defence but we haven’t sat down and discussed that yet so I am not sure.”