ONE day, maybe a year or three down the track, the Swans are hopeful that their latest recruit, Lewis Johnston, will fill the boots of Barry Hall. But that is in the future and as he unwittingly discovered yesterday it's a bit early to be stepping — or sitting — in for Hall.

With pick 12, the Swans took Johnston, a tall, athletic, key position player, who was enthused about working with Hall and Michael O'Loughlin.

"It's really good have the opportunity to be with them and learn from them, learning from the best hopefully I can achieve my best potential," said Johnston. "To be a key position forward for the Swans would be my dream."

Then he explained he had met Hall moments earlier.

"Yeah, I sat in Barry Hall's seat at the meeting," he said. "There was a bit of yelling and that woke me up straight away. He just sat on me, and everyone just laughed. I was a bit nervous I didn't know what to say, so I just moved away, didn't saying anything."

Johnston, 17, from Port Pirie, will move to Sydney to live, train and play in the reserves next year.

While two of Sydney's three draftees from 2007 — Patrick Veszpremi and Craig Bird — made their senior debuts in 2008, coach Paul Roos said there is no pressure on the latest crop to do likewise.

"Lewis is a very athletic, tall kid and he has a lot of development left in him as well. With his athleticism, potentially and it's all based on potential now, he could play full-forward, centre half-forward, centre half-back, or wing. Obviously we know we need to replace Barry and Mick at some point over the next 12 months to two years, so clearly it's (his future) with a view of taking the position (of) those guys."

Roos confirmed that while they will pick up some rookies in that draft, the Swans' list was now full, so they won't be looking at any of the players in the pre-season draft on December 16.