Pickering looks for young Swans to bounce backTuesday, April 2, 2019 - 12:20 AM - by Chris Pike

SWAN Districts coach Adam Pickering learned plenty from his first season in charge in 2018 and is confident the black-and-whites can rise up the ladder in 2019 with the remaining core group and some exciting young players.

While Swan Districts have lost some more experience over summer including Todd Banfield, Kirk Ugle, Jarrad Blight and Matthew Rogers from a team that won just six games in 2018, with a question mark over Rhys Palmer's future, Pickering is optimistic over their prospects.

Aside from the arrival of two-club fairest and best winner George Hampson and former Fremantle AFL player Josh Simpson along with the return from Carlton of Jesse Glass-McCasker, it's been much about sticking with the group of senior players and those emerging for Swan Districts.

With a core group of experienced still led by Tony Notte, Alex Howard, Matt Riggio, Steven Payne, Corey Gault, Nathan Blakely and David Ellard, it's still a good mix of senior players to show the way at Bassendean. 

There are then the likes of Jesse Turner, Warrick Wilson, Brayden Hackett, Will Reidy, Mitch Mackenzie, Jack O'Sullivan, Patrick Italiano, Graydon Wilson, Tristen Raynor, Mitchell Bain and Brad Fullgrabe who all will be among those receiving the chances to take their games up another level.

Pickering knows it's going to be an increasingly youthful Swan Districts team, but he is confident it's a group that can dramatically improve on their six wins of 2018.

"I think we'll be OK. We are going to be pretty young and we are sticking down our mantra of building from within that we started last year as a coaching group, board and footy club as a whole decided on," Pickering told 91.3 SportFM.

"But with the reasonable success of the reserves playing finals and the colts making the Grand Final, we've got a lot of talent coming through again who we'll see play league footy this year.

"We are going to be young, but what I can see is that the boys are very fit at the moment and they've been training very hard. 

"They've had a really good strength program as well so those young guys coming through have put on a bit of size and strength. We'll try to fast track their development to league footy and so far we seem to be working pretty well towards that goal."

Pickering has no doubt that the experiences some of the especially young players received late in 2018, including Mitchell Bain and Graydon Wilson, will hold them in good stead to be consistent performers in 2019 because they know what it takes to deliver at senior level.

"I think it gives a couple of them pretty good confidence that they can stand up. Mitchell Bain played one game in the last round of the year against Claremont and ended up kicking Goal of the Year," he said. 

"Graydon Wilson also played a few games with one of them being our best player when we played a really poor game against West Perth. 

"I think it gives them a little bit of a spur on over summer knowing that it's not far away for them if they are consistent in their effort and preparation that they can play at the level. 

"Then for the guys that didn’t get a chance but saw the mates go up all started to think if they are in the same team then maybe they can do it too."

The big addition to Swan Districts over the off-season has been the arrival of Subiaco and East Fremantle fairest and best winner, state representative and premiership player Hampson.

The 109-game veteran has proven equally effective forward and in the midfield throughout his career with both the Lions and Sharks, and Pickering couldn’t fault the way he is fitting in at Swan Districts.

"He has been first-class, George has been terrific. He is so professional in the way that he prepares and everything he does to the point that when he missed a session he sent me a photo of the doctor's certificate to prove he was ill," Pickering said.

"You can just see with the way he goes about his training that it's at a really high level. He engages in all the drills, he engages in all the feedback and he actually is trying to help a lot of the young guys when he sees something. 

"Part of his role is to help develop those young guys and his ability to bring those guys on will be great and he's already started to do that. I can't question George's application to our program at all."

One player who still has plenty of an unknown quantity about him coming into the 2019 season for Swan Districts is Josh Simpson.

He is an excitement machine having played two AFL matches with Fremantle but it has been a rocky road since then for the 25-year-old. 

But he wants to give playing in the WAFL another crack and now he should be in the prime of his career and ready to knuckle down, and devote himself to playing some strong football. 

Pickering is excited by what he can potentially bring to Swan Districts.

"We hope he goes well. He has really applied himself to our program since coming down from Geraldton as well. Josh has had his demons off the field over the years but a lot can improve when you grow up and mature," he said. 

"You get a little bit older and smarter, and he has been terrific as well. He's obviously been out of the system for a few years so his fitness levels aren’t at the standard we'd like or he would like, but he is applying himself to get those right. 

"If he keeps tracking along like he is at the moment he'll be ready to go for Round 1. You can see when we do our football drills that his knowledge and understanding of the game and skill level is first-class, it's top notch at our footy club. 

"We are really excited that if he keeps applying himself he will get to where he wants to go and where we want him to go too."

As for his reflections on his first season as a senior coach on the back of his apprenticeship at colts, reserves and league level at both East Perth and Perth following his VFL, AFL and WAFL playing career, Pickering has no doubt he learned a lot.

Winning just one game after Round 9 meant that things didn’t all go to plan, but Pickering is confident he learned a lot from it and he hopes his playing group has as well which can help them dramatically turn things around for 2019.

"It was a really good learning experience for myself and for our group as well to learn about me as a coach and us as a whole. I did learn that it's not an easy competition and if you slacken off or things don’t go your way for a little bit, it can really bite you," Pickering said. 

"That's something that we've tried to instil in the guys over the summer that if you drop off a little bit or aren’t ready to go when it's your turn to go into league footy that it will hurt the footy club.

"Getting everyone on board everyone working toward the same common goal whether you are first year out of colts or a 220-game dual Swan Medallist like Tony Notte has been the biggest priority for us."