The Sydney Swans are searching for five consecutive victories for the first time this season when they face Essendon at the Gabba on Saturday, July 31 in Round 20.

Swans duo Callum Mills and Harry Cunningham return for the upcoming fixture with James Rowbottom and Ben Ronke omitted from the side.

The pair were forced to quarantine a fortnight ago, moments before the Swans Round 18 clash against the GWS Giants after they, along with Colin O'Riordan and Callum Sinclair were re-classified as Tier-2 contacts due to attending a rugby match in Victoria.

They, along with Swans staff, returned to the team this week.

Essendon have named three changes to their side that had a 13-point defeat to GWS last week.

The Bombers will welcome back Kyle Langford from injury, with Aaron Francis making a return from mental health leave and Dylan Clarke set to play his first AFL game of the season after a lengthy injury layoff.

Veterans David Zaharakis and Cale Hooker and youngster Brayden Ham have been omitted.

The clash will kick off at 7:40pm 

WHERE TO WATCH

The match was originally scheduled to be played at Marvel Stadium however the Round 20 fixture was updated earlier this week. 

The match will be broadcast live by the Seven Network into New South Wales and the ACT and nationally on Foxtel and Kayo. 

Follow via our social channels @sydneyswans on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.  

STATS

Recent encounters between these two teams have been extremely close, with an average margin of just 6-points over the last four encounters. Sydney won by 3-points when they met earlier this season, a Round 4 clash at the SCG and have won 2 of the last five encounters. 

Sydney enter this clash in strong form, with four consecutive wins. The team currently sits sixth on the ladder with 12 wins this season and come off a dominant 40-point victory over Fremantle last week.

Essendon enter this clash with two wins in the last five games and will be looking for victory as they sit ninth on the ladder with eight wins this season.

KEY QUOTES

John Longmire

"It's good to have Mills and Cunningham back in our team. They are in our leadership group, important drivers and play important roles so after a missing a couple of games, it's good to have them back in team line up," Longmire said.

"They were able to continue training as much as they could do in isolation. They had some fitness and gym equipment so they were able to keep going and do what they needed to do. They really only missed the one week of training with the team so it wasn't a big thing in that regard.

"It's just good to have them back. When they walked into the team room, they and the staff that have been in isolation, it's great for the energy of the group to have everyone back together and back amongst the team environment."

"We always look at what the opposition strengths are and we understand what they do really well. They are a pretty well balanced team, have a good midfield and we try and make sure understandably respect that but play to our strengths like we normally do most weeks."

"We will be looking to play with a four-quarter effort and we have some areas in our game we would like to keep improving. We need to improve on some areas and we need to do that this week.”

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SYDNEY has kept its hopes of a top-four berth alive, defeating Essendon by seven points in a shootout at the MCG.

The past four matches between these two teams had been decided by an average of just six points, and Sunday's edition was no exception, with the Swans holding on as the Bombers kicked two late goals in the 17.7 (109) to 16.6 (102) result.

The game sprang to life in the third term, and while the defensive coaches from both sides wouldn't have been pleased, a total of 12 goals were kicked as backlines were caught out with quick movement into attack.

Sitting just two points in arrears at the final break, Essendon kept up with Sydney for most of the final term, but just fell short as the Swans surged to an impressive victory.

Sydney had dominated the uncontested play in the first quarter, recording an astonishing 46 marks as Essendon allowed the Swans to chip the ball at will.

Despite having that much footy, it was the Bombers who carried an eight-point lead into the first break, with the Swans only entering 50 on nine occasions for a return of 2.1.

Tom Hickey clearly had enough of the stop-start game, wresting the ball out of the ruck in the opening centre bounce of the second term and booting it long, resulting in a quick Sam Reid goal.

While the Swans moved the ball with more purpose, taking the lead for the first time, it was the Bombers who slowly but steadily piled on the goals, catching the visitors on the back foot in defence to lead by 12 at half-time.

Tom Papley ran riot, kicking four goals, while Callum Mills (33 disposals, 12 marks) and Luke Parker (26 disposals) were the drivers in the midfield with Jordan Dawson (24 and eleven marks) playing an important linking role.

For the Bombers, Jake Stringer had the occasional patch of brilliance charging out of the middle, Kyle Langford kicked three amidst spending time on the exercise bike and Zach Merrett showed outstanding work rate both in attack and defence.

Heeney's heroics kickstarts Swans

Isaac Heeney had a relatively quiet first half, but did his best to drag Sydney back into the match with a fine defensive effort at half forward. Finding himself in a two-on-one situation, he interrupted an Essendon handball and followed up with a tackle, winning a holding-the-ball free. Instead of bombing long to Lance Franklin or Tom Hickey, he steadied, finding Luke Parker with a kick across his body. It cut the margin to six points.

Another dose of Papley magic

Tom Papley had a day out against the Bombers, kicking his third four-goal haul this season and relishing the attention afforded to the taller Sydney forwards. It wasn't just down to some occasional loose checking either, the Swan running hard both ways in order to create space to cause havoc. He finished with 14 touches and eight score involvements.

ESSENDON    3.3    6.5    11.5    16.6    (102)
SYDNEY         2.1    4.5    11.7    17.7    (109)

GOALS  
Essendon: Langford 3, Merrett 2, Stringer 2, Smith 2, Wright 2, Clarke, Cutler, Hind, McDonald-Tipungwuti, Shiel
Sydney: Papley 4, Parker 2, Franklin 2, Hayward 2, Blakey, Gulden, Hickey, Kennedy, Mills, Reid, Wicks

BEST  
Essendon: Merrett, Parish, Stringer, Langford, Draper
Sydney: Mills, Parker, Papley, Dawson, Lloyd

INJURIES  
Essendon: Laverde (right shoulder)
Sydney: Nil

SUBSTITUTES  
Essendon: Brayden Ham (replaced Laverde)
Sydney: Dylan Stephens (unused)