Without much fanfare, young Swan Tom Mitchell achieved a major milestone in last weekend’s Swans reserves clash with the Brisbane Lions.



Despite now being in his second year at the club, ongoing injuries in his first season meant that Sunday’s match marked the first full game the midfielder has played in the red and the white since he was drafted at the end of 2011.



The father-son recruit, who spent more time sprinting and dodging cones than kicking the football during the pre-season, told sydneyswans.com.au he was relieved to finally get a full game under his belt.



“It was a pretty frustrating pre-season once again and I had another knee issue which was a bit of a setback,” Mitchell said.



“The physios just really stripped my program back and made sure everything was right and then looking back, I’m sort of happy that I put in all the work to get it right because now I’m back playing games and it feels a lot better.



“It was definitely frustrating when you saw all the guys training and there was a pretty long period where I was training by myself just trying to get my injury right.



“It was just good to be back and to be enjoying playing footy again and not being held back on game time by any restriction or anything like that.”



Swans reserves coach Jared Crouch gave the 19-year-old a task in his first match - one of the toughest opponents who will play in the NEAFL this year, Brownlow medallist and triple premiership player, Simon Black.



Mitchell said he was honoured to get the job on the star midfield, and described Black as an extremely ‘smart’ player on field.



“It was a great experience to play on someone like Black because he’s definitely a player I looked up to when I was younger and is obviously a superstar of the competition,” he said.



“I found that he’s a really smart player and he reacts really quickly.



“I found that if I took my eyes off him for a few seconds he’d be 20 or 30 metres away, so I had to have a strong focus on just watching him otherwise he could find his way into space really easily.”



Mitchell added that Black was one of the players he hoped to mirror his own game on, along with Gold Coast captain Gary Ablett.



“I try to look at similar players in my position and try and learn things from different players,” he said.



“It was a great experience to play on someone of Black’s calibre and I definitely learnt a few things.



“Obviously you also can’t go past Gary Ablett Jnr, because every aspect of his game is near perfect.”



With one full game under his belt, the young Swan said establishing consistency in his output was the next big step in his quest to play senior football.



“I think at the moment I’m just trying to work with the coaches and am learning to play a few different roles,” he said.



“Along with that, I’m also trying to build my match fitness and play a few full games in the reserves and then hopefully if everything goes well and my form is good, then I can try and push for senior selection.”

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