Coach John Longmire and co-captain Kieren Jack spoke to the media on Tuesday morning ahead of Sydney Derby IX against the GWS Giants on Saturday.

Take a look through some of the key quotes from the media conference below.

John Longmire

On the building rivalry…
There is no question that it gets built over time and it happens on the field with the games and the intensity of the games. GWS’s progression over the last couple of years has been pretty quick and we got a good taste of that when we played them in the pre-season game at Drummoyne. They are a very good team so we certainly respect what they are able to do on the football ground in terms of the style of footy they play. That rivalry builds naturally when you get two teams in one town that are trying to play a competitive brand of football every week it is only natural that it builds. This week we expect a big crowd here for a number of reasons and one of the most important reasons is the closeness in the teams. That is good for footy in Sydney.

Pre-season loss to the Giants…
We learnt some lessons that night that we need to make sure we get better at. There is no doubt we were disappointed in the way we played but we also looked at what the Giants did and they used the ball so well and ran so hard. The combination of that we didn’t really handles to we need to make sure we get that better. We saw what they did last week when they had 20 more contested possessions than Geelong who are a really good team as well so I think the Giants and their ability has crept up on the footy world a bit. It certainly hasn’t crept up on us as we have been able to see close up what they have been able to do and they are a very good football team.

Sydney Derby IX a battle of midfields

Giants improvement in last 12 months…
The maturity and recruiting of GWS and us losing some experience probably means that the two teams are closer matched this week. We see them on a weekly basis, we see what they are able to do and we see that they play a good brand of footy. They are hard at it and there is no question now that the job is right in front of us this week regardless of what has happened the previous two weeks.

Any changes to the side for this week…
We have a training session on at the moment but our main training session is on Thursday and at the moment we expect everyone should be right to play. As I say we do still have one training session to go.

Kieren Jack

Lack of speed from the Swans….
It was certainly questioned over the pre-season period and I think one of the other main factors was we were not winning the contested ball. We were a little bit off in the pre-season and I think as you have seen over the last couple of weeks if we can get the bigger bodies inside winning the ball then we still think we have some speed on the outside. Jake Lloyd and Harry Cunningham are probably a little bit underestimated by opposition teams but there are certainly some quick blokes in there. For us over the last couple of weeks to have the likes of Luke Parker and Joey Kennedy winning the ball around the coalface that is what has really set us up.

NSW talent on show Saturday..
It is great for footy in NSW and it is the by-product of the Academy systems now being in place for a fair while. These kids now at a young age are making decisions and have got real pathways in the AFL system in NSW to follow. These talented kids are now coming through and playing for the Swans and the Giants which means it is great for NSW footy.