Former Sydney Swans captain and current assistant coach Jarrad McVeigh says Lance Franklin looks set to make his mark on the competition again.
Speaking on SEN Afternoons, McVeigh said Franklin has looked fit and raring to go this pre-season.
“I had to do a running session with him the other week and he was flying,” McVeigh said.
“Looking at him, he’s just so keen to get out there. He’s missed basically two years of footy and the great competitor that he is, he just wants to get back on the park.”
McVeigh was also bullish about the Swans’ younger brigade, saying the sky is the limit for 2021 and beyond.
“We probably wouldn’t want to put a ceiling on the group at all. We want to see how well we can go and we don’t want to wait,” McVeigh said.
“The competition is not going to hand you a finals berth, so we don’t want to wait. We want the kids to be impatient. We know we have a young group, and we got a lot of games into them last year.
“The way we finished off the last game against Geelong, who obviously made the Grand Final, was pleasing. We thought we probably should’ve won that game, but we learnt a lot in that game and last season about the gap that needs to be closed between us and those teams.”
McVeigh said the club have always been put in the best position to find success, particularly in the heavily saturated NRL market of New South Wales.
“When I was playing, the board always said we’re going to give you the best opportunity to play finals and win premierships every single year,” McVeigh said.
“It’s great to have that from the top all the way down to the players and it gives you the sense we’re building something special.
“Being in New South Wales, we have to win. We need supporters. We need members. So you can’t be down the bottom for too long.”
Sydney will begin its 2021 AAMI Community Series against GWS at Blacktown International Sports Park on February 20.