Sydney Swans’ rookie Nick Smith has found his first year with the club to be a learning experience.

Taken with the Swans’ first pick in the 2006 Rookie Draft, fifteenth overall, Smith arrived in Sydney late last year, and has enjoyed his time with the club so far.

“It’s been really good but a lot different to last year. To be honest I didn’t really know what to expect coming to an AFL club.”

“It is a lot different to junior football; the games are a lot more tactical and involve more commitment. Moving away from home has also been a challenge.

Smith easily identified the biggest difference between junior football and playing professionally.

“How much training there is, for sure! That’s probably the biggest and the footy is just a lot quicker as well.”

Smith played junior football with his school side Scotch College and represented Victoria Metro in the under-18s championship in 2006. 

The left-footed midfielder, who has played in the Sydney Swans’ Reserves throughout 2007 believes his own performance so far this season has been mixed.

“I started okay and then it was not that good for a while.  [My form has] been alright, not great.”

The dominant reserves team remains undefeated in 2007 and Smith said he has enjoyed the experience of playing in the side.

“It’s really good, playing with a bunch of good blokes each week.  It’s great playing before the seniors when there’s a bit of a crowd there too.”

“Although we often win by quite a margin we don’t really compare ourselves against other teams, we compare ourselves against ourselves, what we try to do and what we try to achieve.  We can have bad games and still win.”

His goals for the rest of 2007 are fairly simple.

“Obviously I want to be here next year and make a go of it,” the 19 year-old said.

“And in between I want to just play good footy, keep working hard at the gym, and play well.”

Smith will get another chance to do so this weekend, when the Swans Reserves play Ainslie on Saturday at 2pm at Ainslie Oval.