We bring you all you need to know from the newspapers around the country in the latest Swans in the media.

Five all-star Swans
Neil Cordy
Daily Telegraph, September 2

MINOR premiers Sydney further cemented their AFL domination last night when a record five Swans players were named in the year’s All-Australian team.

All five of their nominations in the original 40-strong shortlist, Lance Franklin, Josh Kennedy, Luke Parker, Dane Rampe and Dan Hannebery, made the 22-man team of the season’s best players.

The GWS Giants made sure NSW provided almost one third of the team with their first multiple selections for the first time with Heath Shaw going back to back and Toby Greene one of the big surprises.

But Swans midfielder and Brownlow Medal hopeful Luke Parker has warned rival clubs the Bloods weren’t interested in reflecting on their individual success, “we are focused on winning finals.”

And that will start with the Swans’ historic qualifying final against the fourth-placed Giants at ANZ Stadium next Saturday.

Gun Swans forward Franklin has emerged from a career-best year to earn his sixth All-Australian selection and second in his three years in the Harbour City, following selections in 2008, 2010, 2011 and 2014.

“It’s really special to share this with four of my teammates,” Franklin told the Daily Telegraph.

“To get five blokes in the All Australian team in one year is an unbelievable effort, it’s a credit to everyone.”

Rampe now reaping the rewards of persistence
Neil Cordy
Daily Telegraph, September 2

THE rise and rise of Dane Rampe has continued with the unlikely Swan now an even unlikelier All Australian.

Four years ago the Clovelly native was running around in the Sydney footy league for UNSW East Sydney Bulldogs, playing for fun with his mates.

Rampe feared his shot at the AFL had passed. He’d moved to Melbourne to play in the VFL with Williamstown two years earlier, but had come up empty after the Western Bulldogs overlooked him twice for a rookie spot despite doing two full pre-seasons with the club.

But the frustration of being unwanted is now ancient history for the 26-year-old, who is thrilled with his All Australian selection. “It’s very exciting,” Rampe told The Daily Telegraph. “It’s a great reward for effort and persistence.” Persistence is an understatement. Even when he was playing in the local Sydney competition in 2012 Rampe never gave up hope of playing in the AFL.

“Back then All Australian honours were the furthest thing from my mind to be honest,” he said “I was happy to get on the list. Then I was happy to play a game. So now to consistently get a game in a very good team is a dream come true and this is the icing on the cake.”

Swans, Giants star in All-Australian team
Andrew Wu
SMH, September 2

Greater Western Sydney forward Toby Greene began the year aiming just to get a regular game with the Giants, but will finish it among the competition’s elite after being named in the AFL’s All-Australian team.

The stellar home and away campaigns of the two Sydney-based clubs was recognised on Thursday night with seven players picked in the team of the year, including Swans superstar Lance Franklin.

Franklin, who missed out last year, becomes a six-time All-Australian after reaffirming himself as one of the game’s best forwards. The Swans had all five of their nominated players make the team, with Luke Parker and Dane Rampe collecting their first All-Australian jumpers while ball magnets Dan Hannebery and Josh Kennedy are in for a third time. Giants vice-captain Heath Shaw held his place in the team but Stephen Coniglio, Tom Scully and Callan Ward missed out.

Greene’s inclusion is the case of a former bad boy come good. The former first-round draft pick’s career was at the crossroads two years ago after he was arrested for his role in a Melbourne pub brawl, but he has since become a key player in the club’s rise up the ladder.

The 22-year-old was stunned when told by Giants football manager Wayne Campbell he had made the final cut, as was his mother when he relayed the news.

‘‘I didn’t think he was being serious, I thought I might just be in the squad,’’ Greene, the club’s third All-Australian representative, said. ‘‘It was a massive shock and something I’m really honoured to be a part of. It’s a massive achievement, something I definitely didn’t expect at the start of the year.

‘‘I was just worried about getting a game. It’s definitely weird saying ‘All-Australian’, it might take a bit to sink in.’’

Young guns have exceeded expectations in charge to finals
Andrew Wu
SMH, September 2

Sydney defender Nick Smith says he has been surprised by the strong form of the Swans’ first-season youngsters who have helped lift the club back to the top of the ladder.

The Swans start the finals series as premiership favourites after claiming the minor premiership but expectations were much lower six months. Few believed the Swans were capable of remaining in flag contention, while some tipped the perennial finalists to miss out on the September action entirely.

The lack of confidence was not without good reason. On top of question marks about the future of glamour forward Lance Franklin, the Swans had lost champion Adam Goodes and fellow premiership heroes Rhyce Shaw, Lewis Jetta, Craig Bird and Mike Pyke.

But the Swans, as they have for the past 20 years, found a way to dumbfound the sceptics. This time they invested heavily in youth, blooding seven debutants – a strategy that is paying handsome dividends. Filling in for Ted Richards, who suffered multiple injuries, Aliir Aliir performed so well he has made a key defensive post his own. He now shapes as a potential 10-year centre half-back whom coach John Longmire can build a next generation defence around.

Callum Mills is another set for a long career after an impressive debut season that has him a red-hot favourite to win the AFL’s Rising Star Award. Tom Papley and George Hewett will also play key roles in the finals. ‘‘To bring those guys in, they’ve played above what we thought they would but that’s been great for us,’’ Smith said.

Swans go to great lengths to find a tall guy
Peter Lalor
The Australian, September 2

If the Swans fulfil their potential this season it will be in no small part a reflection of the club’s ability to identify, nurture and maintain potential in its playing group.

The emergence of the elongated Sam Naismith late in the 2016 season is as good an example as any, but Xavier Richards is another who had also been patiently fed and watered in the back of the cupboard before finding a place in the sunlight of the seniors.

Arguments could also be made for the inclusion of Dane Rampe, Aliir Aliir, Tom Mitchell, Tom Papley and a smattering of other key contributors in the same category.

In Naismith’s case the club has been ahead of the curve at a number of critical junctures in his career, beginning with the ability to see a lean, powerful ruckman hiding somewhere inside the 120kg frame of a wannabe rugby union second-rower from Gunnedah.

Having taken up Australian football at the age of 16 in the NSW country town, the 205cm giant found himself sucked back into playing rugby when he moved to Armidale in 2011 to study.

The southern game has a wide network and the story goes that an Australian rules coach familiar with Naismith’s athletic ability and extraordinary height mentioned him to the Swans which led to an invitation from academy coaches Paul Roos and Chris Smith to board a plane for Sydney. The pair put him up in a hotel and watched with interest when he kicked a ball around a nearby park.

Boys that tall can rarely tie their own shoes, but they could see Naismith was co-ordinated so they invited him to abandon his studies, finding him a place with the local North Shore team and accommodation with its coach.

At the end of the following season Naismith, who had dropped 20kg and improved his fitness, was picked up in the rookie draft. It was all down hill from there.

Leadership role suits veteran Swans defender Grundy
Andrew Wu
SMH, September 1

The challenge of leadership is bringing the best out of Sydney defender Heath Grundy, who has become the elder statesman of the Swans back line at a time of great change.

In a year where it was tipped to be an impediment to the Swans’ tilt at a flag, their defence has become even more miserly.

Rivals are finding scoring against the Swans of 2016, who are conceding a competition-low 67 points a game, as difficult a challenge as that which confronted international batsmen in the 1990s and 2000s trying to break the shackles against Glenn McGrath, despite significant changes in personnel to the Swans’ back six.

Ted Richards, the club’s No.1 defender during the John Longmire reign, has been seemingly pensioned off. Rhyce Shaw is now a coach. The previous off-season saw the departure of key playmaker Nick Malceski.

That has forced Grundy and Dane Rampe to take more senior roles while youngsters Callum Mills and Aliir Aliir, who have exceeded expectations in their first season of league football, find their way.