Sydney coach John Longmire is confident potential salary cap issues won’t break up his AFL premiership winning squad and is looking for improvement from his next generation to keep the Swans a step ahead of their rivals.

While the salary cap invariably makes it hard for a premiership winning club to retain all their key players, Longmire believes the Swans have some wriggle room because of all the highly paid stars that had retired or left the club in recent times.

“There’s dual grand final players, premiership players, best and fairest winners, there’s been a number of players that we’ve lost over the last three years,” Longmire said.

“We think we’ve got some terrific young players coming through our footy team at the moment that have got a bright future ahead of them and we want to make sure that they are part of that future.”

Longmire identified improvement from the clutch of youngsters already established in the side – and from others on the fringe – as a key factor in Sydney staying ahead of their rivals.

“We need the next generation coming through, the players that didn’t play on the weekend , Benny McGlynn, Gary Rohan, there’s a lot of players there,” Longmire said.

“Tony Armstrong, Tommy Walsh, Trent Dennis-Lane, Jed Lamb, there’s a number of players in that next group that we think can come through.”

Longmire conceded Sydney could lose players who sought more opportunities at another club.

“We’ll look at that over the next couple of days and clearly that’s OK, I think in the end we’re all big enough to look at the bigger picture,” Longmire said.

“Some players may (leave) and some players may not, we’re not sure at the moment.”

He wouldn’t comment on suggestions Sydney could chase Adelaide forward Kurt Tippet.

Longmire lauded the efforts of Sydney’s emerging key forward Sam Reid, who he said had a fantastic game in last weekend’s grand final.

“We feel he’s developing along quite well, we think he can get better and we know he’ll get better.”

Longmire stressed he wouldn’t rush dual premiership-winning 301-game midfielder Jude Bolton into deciding whether he wanted to play on.

Sydney has been an active player in trade week in recent years and Longmire didn’t rule out moves from the Swans in this year’s three-week period or in the free agency market.

“We don’t close ourselves off to anything, but we are also mindful that we need to make some smart decisions at this time of the year,” Longmire said.

“At the very front of our mind is we need to get better.”

Delivering a premiership might seem the perfect time for Longmire to push for a contract extension, but he seemed embarrassed by the suggestion.

“I’m not quite bold enough to be doing that just yet, I’m still feeling my way, I’ve only coached two years,” Longmire said.

He said the only Sydney player requiring off-season surgery was Irishman Walsh, who underwent a shoulder operation on Tuesday.