THE SYDNEY Swans are in a transition period but veteran forward Barry Hall says there's no reason why the club can't feature in a seventh straight finals series this year.

With the departure of Peter Everitt, Ben Mathews and Tadhg Kennelly, and veterans Leo Barry and Michael O’Loughlin battling to be fit for the early rounds, the Swans will be looking to their youngsters to fill the void.

But Hall, who will have his first hit-out of the year in this Saturday’s NAB Challenge clash against Melbourne at Visy Park, said the club was aiming for another successful campaign.

"It's all up in the air at the moment because there are 16 clubs fit and raring to go," he said.

"It’s going to be a transition period for us because we’ve got a lot of young guys coming through, but the experienced guys still played well last year.

"We made finals and if we can do that again … I don’t see why not, but it’s going be a tough year ahead, there’s no doubt."

Luke Ablett, Nick Malceski and Jared Crouch will start their year against the Demons and Hall said it was important to get some game time into the senior players.

Talented youngsters Daniel Currie and Patrick Veszpremi have also been named in the 29-man squad for the match, joining a host of young Swans backing up from last week’s loss to Port Adelaide.

Hall said he was relishing the chance to pass his knowledge on to the club’s emerging players in the forward line.

"We’ve got some young guys coming through that we’re trying to teach the tricks of the trade – Heath Grundy and Lewis Johnston, who we just drafted [last year], so he’s promising," he said.

"We’ll obviously look to [do] that from the start of the year."

But he warned fans not to expect too much from Johnston, who was selected by the Swans with their first-round pick in November's NAB AFL Draft.

"He’s dominated at junior level, but he’s got a slight body and he’s got a bit of work to do on his body," Hall said, adding that a senior debut wasn’t out of the question for the young South Australian key forward.

"At this stage, who knows? If we get injuries and all that sort of stuff, anything can happen," he said.

Dream Team watch – Barry Hall is rated a $355,600 forward in Toyota AFL Dream Team 2009.

Lewis Johnston is rated a $106,600 forward in Toyota AFL Dream Team 2009.