“With the moving on of Barry Hall and the retirement of Mick O’Loughlin, we knew we were going to end up with a very different forward line in 2010,” Blakey said.
“We had the very welcome addition of Daniel Bradshaw, and we’ve picked up another very exciting boy in Trent Dennis-Lane, who kicked over 60 goals in the WAFL last year. We know we’ve got Adam Goodes up there, and we’ve seen the emergence of Jesse White, so as far as the forwards go, we’re very excited about the restructure that’s occurred.”
Taken at pick 55 in the draft, Dennis-Lane has continued to impress the Swans coaching staff with his speed and agility since arriving in Sydney early in December.
“He’s a very good mover,” Blakey said. “He knows how to lose his opponent very well, when he gets on the lead he is quick and hard to stop. He’s very good at applying pressure as well, so when the ball hits the deck, he’s able to go after it and really put on some good pressure, which is probably one thing we need to concentrate on this year.
“He seems to work in really well with Goodesy and Jesse White at the moment too, so I think he’s a fantastic addition to the team.”
Bolstering the Swans’ forward stock in 2010 will be speedy ex-Hawk Ben McGlynn, and potentially, exciting young Indigenous talent Lewis Jetta; with both players offering renewed flexibility at half-forward.
“I think when we went out in 2009 you always knew Mick was there, you knew Hally was there for part of the year, and the opposition would set their plans around those two guys,” Blakey said. “Now we’ve got a forward line that’s extremely flexible, all of a sudden we’ve got some real speed among the key forwards and some exciting prospects to set up some big scores.”
