Sydney surprise packet Harry Cunningham has backed the Swans' emerging youngsters to keep producing the goods for the AFL flag favourites.
Speedy forward Cunningham has revealed how big an influence the Swans' established stars like Lance Franklin and Adam Goodes have had on himself and the other Sydney youngsters.
On Friday, in Sydney's 22-point win over Essendon, 20-year-old forward Tim Membrey became the fourth Swan to make his senior debut this season after Jake Lloyd, Zak Jones and Dean Towers.
Even though he was only informed on Friday morning he was replacing Franklin, Membrey looked the part.
This was despite being on the wrong end of surely one of the biggest experience mismatches in memory.
The 20-year-old Essendon supporter racked up a number of good early touches despite being marked by Bombers legend Dustin Fletcher, who was making his 393rd appearance, the most by any active AFL player.
"It's been good to see so many debutants this year and they've come in and played a role really well and they will continue to do so if we need (them to)," Cunningham said.
"We've got a lot of confidence in our depth."
It's fair to say 20-year-old Cunningham's name is the surprise one among the list of 10 Swans to have played every game this year, especially as he had only made one senior appearance in almost two years before the back end of the 2013 campaign.
"I had a good end to last year and played a couple of finals, which I suppose gave me that confidence to be able to go and have a massive pre-season and really set myself up," Cunningham said.
"I've just been taking it week by week and, if I get a game, I get a game, and I'll play my role."
Playing in a forward line alongside superstars Franklin and Goodes has helped accelerate Rising Star nominee Cunningham's development.
"Bud and Goodesy, they've been massive for me, not only on the field, but off the field," Cunningham said.
"Just to help with settling in to playing footy, week in week out, at that elite level and I've got Kieren Jack as a mentor as well.
"Bud has been around footy for a long time, so he knows what to do, how to switch off and to get that balance right."
Coach John Longmire was hopeful Franklin would recover from knee tendonitis in time to play Port Adelaide next Saturday.
He said midfielder Dan Hannebery was a chance of returning from an ankle injury that has kept him out of Sydney's past six matches.
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