A tip from fellow Sydney Swans newcomer Shane Mumford could help Trent Dennis-Lane get to know his new teammates faster than expected.

Dennis-Lane, who was selected by the Swans at No.55 in last week’s NAB AFL Draft, said the likes of Brett Kirk and pre-season draft target Daniel Bradshaw were easily recognisable.

But he admitted the club’s bevy of younger players were a different matter altogether.

“I’ve met about 30 of them in just the first few hours of being at the Club and it’s been a struggle to remember them all,” Dennis-Lane said.

“I was talking to Shane Mumford and he’s got a team list at his house with all the players from this year with all their nicknames written underneath, with a little photo of each player.

“That’s how he’s started to remember it so I might have to do the same.”

The affable 21-year-old spent his first days at the club with a permanent smile, and with good reason.

It was a case of fourth time lucky for the West Australian, who simply refused to believe that he wasn’t good enough to play AFL.

Having been overlooked in the previous three drafts, Dennis-Lane proved the doubters wrong in 2009 with a 66-goal season for WAFL grand finalist Subiaco.

“[Each year] my coaches told me that I was really close, so to know that I was close and just missing out… I just tried to get that little bit better every season to hopefully get a crack at it and it’s finally happened,” he said.

“Once I got a bit of confidence up, I just got on a roll and it just sort of happened. I had belief in myself that I could keep playing well.

“It was good to finally play a whole season and show them what I could do when I hit some good form.”

While Dennis-Lane has a tough job ahead of him to remember his new teammates’ names and nicknames, he is preparing himself to receive a new moniker of his own.

Fortunately, he’s had some practice.

“I received ‘Hyphen’ when I was at Subiaco because of my hyphenated last name [and] I did some of the pre-season down at [Freo] and I was getting Lois, because of Lois Lane… there are a few floating around,” he said with a laugh.

Whatever he ends up being called, Swans coach Paul Roos has high hopes for a player who is at ease as a crumbing forward or a lead-up option in the attacking 50.

Like fellow draftee Lewis Jetta, Dennis-Lane has been earmarked to make his senior debut at some stage during 2010.

“They’ve played senior football in the WAFL, they’ve played against bigger bodies and they’ve both played some fantastic footy,” Roos said.

“Trent kicked 60-something goals in senior footy last year which is a great effort and some of the stuff that Lewis can do is quite extraordinary.

“They’re a fair bit more advanced than what the other three boys [Gary Rohan, Sam Reid and Byron Sumner] are.”

Did you miss it? Hear from Byron Sumner, another player the Swans recently drafted.