The Swans had an encouraging pre-season and many youngsters did very well in the game time they had.

I have assessed all the youngsters exclusively for sydneyswans.com.au and here is part one.

Ed Barlow (played three games)

He looked athletically around the mark but has to improve competitively, that is working hard to win his own footy so he has to get physically better on his attack of the footy.

Ed was the best pre-season trainer at the Club, as far as running and the time trials he was the leader of the pack so it is more learning about the game, where to run and the right times to run to hopefully cap off that outstanding fitness he has got, to really use it properly.

Ryan Brabazon (three games)

Ryan is a very fit and good running type player but just needs to get better at winning the ball himself when it is his turn to go. He didn't do anything majorly wrong at all during the games but just needs to get himself involved more as much as he possibly can going forward.

Daniel Currie (two games)

Daniel is based in Melbourne so only played two games but showed enough in those two games to excite the coaching staff and we really look forward to working with him full-time when he finishes his HSC at the end of the season.

We were expecting plenty from him as he was very impressive on the training track when he was up here and you hope they can transfer that into the games and I think Daniel showed he is capable of doing that which is encouraging for us.

Peter Faulks (two games)

Peter probably found the standard jump from the under-18 comp a bit of a surprise so the pre-season has been a real learning curve and he has a lot of hard yards ahead of him, but hopefully if he knuckles down he will do the hard work and he will start to realise that if AFL footy was easy everyone would be doing it. It is a hard job at the moment and Faulksy is starting to learn that.

Kieren Jack (four games)

Kieren has really come along well, we are really happy with the way he performed in his games. He is very competitive, tagged Jason Akermanis against the Bulldogs and kept him to ten possessions, and though on the rookie list he has given us every impression that he can play senior footy if given an opportunity.

Matthew Laidlaw (four games)

He hasn't done anything majorly wrong at all and is certainly physically ready to play but he just has to improve his work-rate in games. He loses concentration and switches off at times so that is the main focus for Matty going forward, a developing a consistent work-rate through the whole match. In terms of speed, athletic ability and physical size he is ready to play senior football.

Sam Rowe (three games plus two games with minimal minutes)

Rowey is another one on our rookie list that we have been pleased with in the pre-season. He is a big strong kid, has good speed and has held his own as a ruckman when we have needed him to and also performed as a key forward, and we think he can also be a key defender with his good speed as well. It is a very important year for Sam, he played well in the Canberra comp last year and I think he will be looking to be a dominant type player in that comp as well.

Coming up tomorrow... part two