THERE may have been a lot of hype attached to the re-signing announcements of Suns' young guns Ben King, Jack Lukosius and Izak Rankine, but in the eyes of coach Stuart Dew, the key to the club's turnaround was the signature of David Swallow. 

At a time when co-captains Tom Lynch and Steven May were walking out, Swallow agreed to a five-year contract extension.

Speaking on In The Game with Damian Barrett, Dew said the Swallow re-signing was the circuit-breaker the club needed.

"He effectively made himself a (Suns) lifer," Dew said. "Then Rory Thompson followed, Jack Lukosius, Izak Rankine, more. 

"That's about the players, they're talking with their feet. It was probably the first time in our short history that they were able to look around and say, well, he's going to be here for a while, and it was very important."

In the interview, Dew also said: 

• THE overall numbers one and two picks in last year's national draft, Matt Rowell and Noah Anderson, gained instant respect from the playing group for "letting their footy do the talking";
• THAT an off-season personal leadership course in Boston had convinced him to not "deviate from your true self". "Essentially, if you're really consistent with your behaviour and your beliefs, and certainly the role models I've seen and coaches like (Alastair) Clarkson, (Mark) Williams and (John) Longmire, they're really consistent and they don't waver. Now, that's not to say at different times you doubt yourself, they doubt themselves, but their external behaviour to the group is really consistent. So I guess for me, they're the themes that I got out of it."
• HE and the club were well advanced in negotiating a contract extension.