Swans speedster Lewis Jetta and forward Kurt Tippett were among the best performers in this morning’s intra-club match at Lakeside Oval.
In slippery and wet conditions, Jetta showed he had not lost any of his 2012 brilliance over the off-season, with a number of blistering runs and silky passages.
Tippett was the dominant forward on the ground, kicking three goals and taking countless marks in the forward 50 against premiership defenders Ted Richards and Heath Grundy.
Speaking after the match, Swans coach John Longmire said he was impressed with Jetta and Tippett as well as utility Andrejs Everitt and new rookie Jake Lloyd.
“Lewis Jetta looks as though he has carried on from where he left off last year and I thought he was fantastic,” Longmire said.
“Andrejs Everitt looked really good and I thought he was very good.
“It was also good to see Kurt Tippett have a good, strong hit out and had five or six shots on goal against what was a quality defence, so we were pretty pleased with that.
“Also a few of our younger kids – I thought Jakey Lloyd and a few of the kids did really well.”
The match, which was made up of three 20 minute terms, saw the team trial a number of different line ups throughout the match.
In the first term, rookie Sam Naismith showed positive signs, marking the ball strongly as well as kicking a goal early in the match, while Swans first round draft pick Dean Towers was a consistent performer for his team.
Norm Smith Medallist Ryan O’Keefe lining up on young midfielder Luke Parker made for a great spectacle, with O’Keefe winning more of the ball despite Parker’s hard tackling.
Josh Kennedy and Kieren Jack, who were on opposing teams, both played loose in the first term and also came up with plenty of the ball.
In the second term, the match-up of Towers and Andrejs Everitt proved to be an interesting contest, with Towers getting first hands to the ball early in the piece.
When the rain set in mid-way through the term, it was Everitt who stepped up, sticking a number of difficult marks in the wet and driving the ball into the forward line with pace.
At the other end, wet weather expert Jude Bolton was on his game, kicking one goal and setting up top-up player Jackson Potter for another.
Swans rookie Jake Lloyd was another quality performer, with his speed and sharp skills setting him up as an important link player during the term.
The final term saw some of the best match-ups of the game, with Tippett taking on Richards, Grundy lining up on Sam Reid and Rhyce Shaw on Ben McGlynn.
Everitt continued to be a target up forward, and delivered a number of pin point passes to Tippett, who played his best football of the match in the third term, while Shaw was strong in defence backing up Richards and Grundy on a number of occasions.
McGlynn also showed positive signs, playing two-thirds of today’s match after an injury interrupted pre-season.
Swans co-captain Adam Goodes did not take part in the intra-club match, along with Marty Mattner, Nick Smith, Mitch Morton, Alex Johnson and Tom Mitchell, who ran laps during the match.
Ruckman Shane Mumford, who is recovering from an ankle injury, also did not take part.