David King considers the Sydney Swans the team to beat in season 2017, and expects them to go close to avenging their 2016 Grand Final loss to the Western Bulldogs next year.
The Fox Footy analyst considers that the already star-laden side will only become stronger next year as the club’s younger talent, headlined by Isaac Heeney and 2016 Rising Star Callum Mills, grow in experience.
The Swans gave seven players their debut last year, an unlikely story for a team that featured in the final game of the season.
“They’re the team to beat. For me in 2017, the Swans are the ones that you are going to have to match,” King said on SEN’s The Run Home.
“The Cats had an outstanding year but I’m not sure they’re necessarily definitely getting better. The Hawks the same.
“GWS are what we all think, the Crows maybe, West Coast not sure, North Melbourne probably not. Is there a contender from outside the eight? I’m not sure.
“Of all the top five or six teams, the Swans I can guarantee you will be the same, if not better.”
Glenn Luff agreed, and says that the club’s newest draftees will add even more talent to the Swans for years to come.
“The club just get everything right,” he said.
“Even the most recent draft, I’ve got them top four in terms of who they’ve picked up. They’ve picked up a bit of everything which they needed.
“We saw last year that they made a grand final with a heap of youngsters… they’re an outstanding club and they’ll be up there again.”
However the Champion Data analyst believes that the club’s decision not to seek a ready-made replacement for the Hawthorn-bound Tom Mitchell is a risky move.
“They didn’t pick up anyone in the trade period, they’ve only acquired youngsters through the draft and a couple of mature-agers, but they lost Tom Mitchell,” Luff said.
“I know everybody thinks Tom Mitchell is fifth or sixth in that group of midfielders but his best month of footy was the finals.”
Scott Lucas expects that Heeney will be the player to take Mitchell’s place in the midfield, with Mills to also see more time in the middle in the coming years.
“We saw Heeney take a lot of centre bounces through the middle in that finals series, more than I would have expected due to the trust,” he said.
“We saw him go into the midfield and show real power. Heeney to me right now looks like the bull. We know Sydney’s appetite in selecting bulls to play in the middle, there’s a team full of them.
“I think Mills will take a little bit more time because of the way he plays. I think he’s very good on the outside, he sees space and uses that well.
“Heeney’s the natural one to go into the midfield. Mills in time.”
Swans coach John Longmire says that the club need to improve in their ability to close out tight matches and also improve the consistency of their ball movement.
“There’s so many different areas that we need to improve upon; we lost a couple of tight games this year, we can be a bit better in those situations and that’s an area we can improve upon compared to previous years,” he said.
“It’s also about making sure that we finish games off strongly and getting our conversion… hit the scoreboard the way we should… and a bit of a ball-movement, we thought when we did it well we did it really well it’s just being more consistent with it.”
Click here to view Isaac Heeney's SEN Inside Football AFL Player Ratings.
Click here to view Callum Mills' SEN Inside Football AFL Player Ratings.