Sydney 2019 season review: Swans enter a new era

This year’s trade period and draft will be more important than ever for the Swans as they enter an exciting, and challenging, new era, writes Mick McGuane. Who needs to step up?

Lance Franklin of the Swans embraces Josh Kennedy.

After missing out on finals for the first time in 10 years, the 2019 season marks a significant changing of the guard for the Swans.

Sydney farewelled four key figures from a proud era that netted them a premiership in 2012 and another two Grand Final appearances.

This moment shapes as a big test a club that lost 1048 games of experience after the retirements of Jarrad McVeigh (325), Kieren Jack (256), Heath Grundy (256) and Nick Smith (211), sparking plenty of change for next season.

That's going to open doors for young players on the list. If there was a positive to take out of the team's eight-win season, it was the opportunities created through injuries this year.

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Nick Blakey is a perfect case in point. At 195cm and boasting great mobility, he played 21 games and kicked 19 goals in his first season without Lance Franklin alongside him for most of the year, which has helped fast-track his development.

They also got games into promising youngster Jordan Dawson and created another role for Aliir Aliir, adding another string to his bow by throwing him into the ruck.

Injuries in the ruck department clearly hurt them with Sam Naismith sidelined for the season and Callum Sinclair missing since Round 15.

Callum Mills could be set for a move into the midfield.

They need a healthy ruckman and they need to add speed to their midfield group as there is a bit of sameness around Josh Kennedy, Luke Parker and George Hewett.

Hewett is the accountable mid, Kennedy is the old warrior who is great at winning first possession and Parker is as tough as they come. But they need to complement that group with some speed.

It could be time to get Callum Mills away from a running back role and inject him into the midfield.

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If they can earmark a free agent midfielder with some speed, natural ball-winning ability and creative ball use, they should target that type.

What do they do with Daniel Menzel? He played just seven games. They recruited him to be a goalkicker and they should persevere with him and try to get his body right.

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Daniel Menzel failed to fire in his first year at Sydney. Picture: Phil Hillyard

The Swans never recovered from a 2-6 start to the season. Their contested ball game was extremely disappointing and not what Sydney generally stands for.

Their contested ball differential of -11.6 ranked 18th in the competition, which in turn limited the supply to their forward 50.

If you lose the contested ball regularly and haven’t got the likes of Franklin due to injury to hit the scoreboard, it's no surprise why the Swans struggled to be a high scoring team this year.