Despite having started its season winless and playing plenty of youth, there has been no directive from anyone at the Sydney Swans to change philosophy and rebuild, says List Manager Kinnear Beatson.
Swans coach John Longmire has already unveiled five debutants this year, and last week against Collingwood they had eight players with 14 games or less experience.
“The whole process is just ongoing all the time. The renewal of your list and the assessment of your list, we’re certainly in no rebuild phase, we’ve never ever used that word to be honest,” Beatson told SEN’s The Wednesday Crunch.
“It’s just evolution of the list, I don’t think that this is year is much different to the two years previously.
“I think John’s pretty keen to play new young talent when and if they’re ready.
“2015 for an example that year Issac Heeney, George Hewett, Zak Jones and Sam Naismith started playing, last year we had Callum Mills, Aliir Aliir, Tom Papley, James Rose and Dan Robinson, so this year’s not unique I wouldn’t have thought.
“It’s just we’ve got off to a bad start for other reasons.”
Beatson admits trying to stay at the top has come at a cost, but ultimately concedes trying to win premierships without some high draft picks is tough work.
“For those clubs who are at the bottom of the ladder to get access to the more obvious elite talent, or be in a position to trade those sections to get in senior players who are going to improve their list, that’s how the system is designed,” he said.
“Make no mistake we got some good players in Ollie (Oliver Florent) and Will (Hayward), but it came at a cost, we lost Tommy Mitchell, but got pick 14 for that and worked through trade period to bring that up to selection 10.
“Talent’s one thing, but you’ve got to get them all on the same page working together for a common cause.
“It’s six of one, half a dozen of the other, but it’s hard to win them without talent, put it that way.”
He said even if results do not begin to improve in the short-term, the plan the club has is not expected to change.
“I wouldn’t have thought so,” Beatson said.
“There’s been a gradual change in the list with the retirement of some players…it’s too early to say who will go this year, but there most likely will be others that will retire.”