Departed stars far from irreplaceable for Swans: HardingTuesday, March 18, 2014 - 5:38 PM - by Chris Pike

SWAN Districts coach Greg Harding sees none of his departed players for 2014 as being irreplaceable as he looks to some players on the comeback from horror injury runs, and youngsters to ensure the black-and-whites remain a competitive force this WAFL season.

Much has been made of the departures at Swan Districts coming into the season which includes Wayde Twomey, Shaun Hildebrandt, Brett Robinson, Kyle Hams, Tom Roach, Dayle Garlett, Jamie Bennell, Charlie Cameron and Rory Lobb.

In fact from Swan Districts' 2010 premiership team only Travis Casserly, Tallan Ames, Graham Jetta, Ryan Davis, Matt Riggio, Justin Simpson and Tim Geappen remain at the club in 2014.

Despite the turnover of players from the team that made the finals last year before losing in the home first semi-final to East Perth, Harding still believes that Swans have enough talent to be competitive still this year.

"We lost the three boys to the AFL draft and when you look at how many games they played, we lost another two or three players in terms our AFL-listed boys as well. We've also had a few retirements and others move on so we have had quite the turnover," Harding said.

"We are just looking forward to seeing what kids put their hands up now to play Round 1 and stand up for us this season. There will be plenty of opportunities for them and they will have every chance to show us what they can do.

"Guys like Rudy Riddoch, Matty Jukes, Jacob Burnham and Ricky Cary have done an apprenticeship in the twos and are looking good, and we have a guy called Brent Latch who actually severed a tendon in his toe midway through the year last year when he was playing great footy in key positions.

"Whilst we have lost some really good names, we are confident we have a lot of kids who can be competitive in the short-term and then very good players in the short to medium-term."

Despite most predictions from the outside expecting Swan Districts to be big sliders in the WAFL this year because of the players lost, Harding feels that there are some in-built readymade replacements already there.

Premiership player Travis Casserly has been limited to just four league appearances since the 2010 grand final culminating with a broken leg in 2013, but the 26-year-old is up and firing heading into 2014 and looks set to begin the year in a new role through the midfield.

Defender Luke Pratt has also had a horror run with injury since 2010 not playing a single league game since the 2010 second semi-final loss to Claremont.

He initially was suspended and missed the premiership win of that year and since has only played seven reserves matches due to a disastrous run with knee injuries. However, he now is looking set to fire again in 2014.

Then with other players like Nathan Broad, Matthew Rogers, Adam Faulkner, Ricky Cary, Brent Latch, Nathan Blakely, Matthew Jukes and Jacob Burnham who appear ready to cement themselves as regular league footballers.

"The guys we have lost are certainly replaceable. They are good players and some really good names on paper that we have lost, but we will have some boys who will step into the breach straight away," he said.

"In the back end of last year, Nathan Broad and Matty Rogers were desperately unlucky to miss out on a spot in our first semi against East Perth and we have guys like Travis Casserly and Luke Pratt who have barely played at all for two or three years.

"Cass has had a really strong pre-season and he's going to step straight into our midfield with immediate impact and Lukey has been out of the game for a long time with knee reconstructions and the like. He has been fantastic and hasn’t missed a beat, and looks like he is back to his beat. He brings an enormous amount of courage to our football side."

Tony Notte is one player who has continued to develop every year he has played WAFL football with Swan Districts and he now is one of the best versatile big men in the competition.

The 23-year-old is best suited in the Swan Districts team of 2014 as a permanent forward, but he also has the ability to play in the ruck and play in defence when required.

Harding loves having him in his team, but knows that to take advantage of his versatility that other young big men need to stand up as well.

"Ideally we'd love to keep Tony forward and pinch-hit him in the ruck with him also having the capacity to slide in behind the ball at times," Harding said.

"For us, when we lost momentum and the opposition side kicks a couple in-a-row it's amazing to be able to put Tony a kick behind because he reads the play so well, and catches it well.

"We do need his goalkicking power up forward, though, so that's where he will play most of the time but we need other guys like a Ricky Cary to stand up at either full-forward or centre half-forward in the times when Tony is in the ruck or behind the footy."