Sent north knowing nobody else, their bond grew through games of Super Mario Kart at Stephens' place. Fellow 2019 draftee Will Gould has also got in on the Nintendo act.

"They get quite competitive – a few remotes thrown here and there – but it's all in good fun," Warner said. "We go there a few nights a week. Anything we can find. We play a bit of golf together as well."

To the Swans, the draft number is just that, a number. Once a recruit reports for pre-season training, the club says they treat them all the same, irrespective of when they were called out on draft night.

That Stephens and Warner are making their debuts together against Richmond is testament to that. At pick 39, Warner was the fourth and final player the Swans took at last year's draft. Stephens was sealed a night earlier at No.5, the club's highest non-academy pick since Jarrad McVeigh in 2002.

At 183cm and 69kg, Stephens is on the slight side for a midfielder, but is accustomed to playing against men, with 13 games for Norwood last year in the SANFL. He was given a taste of senior football during the pre-season, but was overlooked for the season proper.

"The speed of the game and the pressure is different, and the urgency level," Stephens said. "The physicality for me was something I got used to. In that aspect it's similar, but the intensity and speed is the big thing for me."

Warner is in the mould of the stereotypical modern Swans midfielder: hard, tough and uncompromising. Sydney coach John Longmire had to pull him up during the summer to explain to him the difference between pressure and mock pressure.

Since arriving at the SCG, he has been further indoctrinated into the Swans' ways by development coach Brett Kirk, who embodied the club's ethos in the 2000s.

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"It goes a lot with the Bloods culture," Warner said. "Kirky was talking to me about it the other day about the trademark of their midfield – hard two-way running, hard nature, that don't give up [attitude], cop everything on the chin and move on."

With the NEAFL in recess, Stephens and Warner proved their wares in scratch matches against the Giants, who they have played three times since the season resumed. They will be pleased to see a jumper that's not orange this week.

The youngsters were given the good news by Longmire in front of their teammates at training: Stephens first, then Warner.

"I'd much rather do it with him than do it by myself," Warner said of Stephens. "We were talking the other day about how lucky we were to do it together and how early in the season to get a chance and show Australia what you can do."