The Swans’ one-to-four-year players, who started pre-season training on November 17, have undergone a solid week of sessions, which kicked off with a three-kilometre time trial last Monday, as well as several intense sessions of repeat running and strength training.
Speaking to media on Monday, Longmire said he was pleased with how hard his youngsters were working so far this pre-season.
“We’ve got our one-to-four-year players training a bit earlier than our other group,” Longmire said.
“Our five-plus-year players start on December 1, so we’ve been having a really good look at the young kids and they’ve been terrific so far.
“It’s only early days but they’re in good shape.”
With running on top of the agenda in the early stages of pre-season, the club’s best runners have been stepping up to the plate, with QBE Sydney Swans Academy draftee and 800-metre national title holder Jack Hiscox leading from the front.
Longmire also highlighted Dane Rampe and Tom Mitchell, who had a frustrating 2014 season due to injury, as stand outs during the running program.
“Jack Hiscox is an absolute gun runner, so he’s winning all of the runs by a fair margin,” he said.
“We’ve also been pleased with Dane Rampe, Tom Mitchell and Harry Cunningham, and there a few of those players who have been really running well, so we’re really thrilled with how they’ve come back.”
One young Swan who won’t be taking part in this year’s pre-season program is Alex Johnson, who will require a fourth knee reconstruction in 2015 to repair his troublesome right knee.
Longmire said it was disappointing that Johnson, who last played senior football in the 2012 Grand Final, was sidelined again, but said the club would support him through this difficult time.
“(Alex’s) still some time away,” Longmire said.
“He’s still got some challenges with his knee to get over, so the expectations on his are pretty low on him to be able to get through that.
“We’re going to take our time with him and give him every possible chance.
“He’s such an important player for us.”
The Swans will also need to replace the loss of Nick Malceski this season, after the running defender made the decision to move north to the Gold Coast Suns.
While Johnson is still not in the equation to return to the Swans back six, Longmire said he had a number of options at his disposal to fill the half-back role.
“We’ve got a number of players who can play back there, and we’ve got Jarrad McVeigh who was an All-Australian half back,” he said.
“He can go there with Gary Rohan, who has been developed as a rebounding defender as well, so we think we’ve got a number of players who can play through that half-back line.
“Nick was a fantastic player for us, but we think we can cope with the number of players who we can rotate through there.”
Longmire also backed Swans champion Adam Goodes to play an important role for the club in 2015, in what will be his 17th AFL season.
The coach said Goodes was likely to play a similar role to what he played in 2014 and said he could have an even greater impact next season.
“We expect (Adam) to play that forward role and he’s not a bad small forward or fourth forward in the forward line,” Longmire said.
“We expect him to have a lot more training and pre-season under his belt than he had last year.
“He was certainly delayed in his start last year, so this year we expect him to be a lot forward in his training, so hopefully he gets off to a really good start.
“If he kicks over 30 goals as a small crumbing forward then we’re pretty happy with that.”
