COACH John Longmire was left beaming on Friday night at the effort of his young Swans after he introduced a fifth debutant for the season in the club's 22-point win over Carlton.
The premiers' depth is being sorely tested, with eight premiership players out of the side leading into the clash with the Blues at a rain-soaked SCG.
Mitch Morton then made it nine when he was troubled by a tight quad during the warm-up, with Xavier Richards named to make his first senior appearance just five minutes prior to the opening bounce.
It would be enough to rock many teams, but the home side handled it with aplomb, withstanding a Carlton fightback to prevail 8.17 (65) to 5.13 (43).
"We had our fifth debutant named five minutes before we ran out. Not the ideal preparation for him," Longmire said afterwards.
"But to see some of those kids out there lets the supporters know there are some young players coming through.
"That was what I was really pleased with tonight.
"Those debutants were all out there and it's good to get some young kids in.
"The senior players were pretty pumped when Xavier came into the team just before the start of the game."
Some of the players missing from the Swans are among the club's most influential, including Adam Goodes, Lewis Jetta, Rhyce Shaw, Lewis Roberts-Thomson and Alex Johnson.
In their place, Dane Rampe, Tom Mitchell, Jed Lamb, Brandon Jack and now Richards have been asked to fill the breach.
The younger brother of All Australian defender Ted, Xavier had been held back from the Swans' reserves game at Blacktown earlier on Friday just in case of an injury.
There was then little time for the 20-year-old, who was selected in last year's Rookie Draft, to prepare before he was introduced as a sub in the final term.
"It was pretty brief," Longmire said. "I didn’t have much time.
"I just went up to the whole playing group, I didn't get to Xavier at the start, and just said 'Morton's out, Richards is in, have a good one'.
"That was about it."
Longmire was also pleased with the efforts of another new Swan, although Kurt Tippett is far from a debutant.
In his second game for the club, Tippett kicked two of the Swans' eight goals and then went into the ruck after Jesse White had been subbed out for Richards.
"I thought he was good tonight," Longmire said.
"He's had eight shots at goal in pretty average conditions over two weeks (including last week's loss to Port Adelaide).
"Tonight he had 10 ground balls in those conditions for a bloke who is 203cm.
"He played really well as a forward and then went into the ruck in the last quarter and rucked quite well.
"To have a big bloke like that who could take a mark and kick a goal, but also get after it at ground level, was good."
James Dampney is a reporter for AFL.com.au. Follow him on Twitter: @AFL_JD
