Sydney Swans co-captain Jarrad McVeigh, who spoke alongside GWS co-captain Callan Ward at the SCG on Tuesday ahead of Sunday’s Sydney Derby IV at the SCG, said he expected nothing less than a tough battle against the Swans’ young rivals in this weekend’s White Ribbon Trophy.
“I think in every game that’s a cross-town rivalry there’s a bit of niggle, but we respect the way they go about,” McVeigh said.
“We know they are hard and tough young kids with a lot of talent and that’s how we like to play the game.
“The games we have played in the past have been just that so I’m sure they’ll be expecting that and we’ll be expecting that as well.”
Sunday’s match will be the first time the Sydney Derby has been played at the SCG, with the first three contests taking place at ANZ Stadium.
McVeigh encouraged all Sydney fans to come out to this weekend’s game and support the Swans in their quest to notch up their 11th win of the season.
“It is good to be home,” he said.
“It’s the first time we’ll play at the SCG, which will be a great thing and hopefully there is a big crowd for us here.
“We look forward to a tough, contested contest again.”
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The last time the two teams met was in round one this season, where the Swans won by 30 points after being tested early by GWS.
GWS co-captain Ward, who is one of only a few of their players to have played on the SCG during his AFL career, said his side was looking forward to another challenge against the Swans this week.
The 23-year-old added his young team looked up to the reigning premiers and modelled their game on the Swans’ contested style of play.
“I think the Swans are a great club and a great team and they always give their best and they are extremely tough,” he said.
“They are a club we’ve looked up to ever since we started in the AFL so we expect a great physical performance this weekend.
“We’re playing in the AFL so what we expect is that every team will go hard at the ball and hard at the man as well.
“That’s what the Swans do and that’s what we try to do, so we base our game on the way the Swans play the game.”
Looking ahead to Sunday’s match, the Swans are set to be without forward Sam Reid, who was ruled out with a quad tear, as well Lewis Jetta who will miss again with a shin injury.
McVeigh said the injuries to Reid and Jetta would provide the chance for another Swans forward to stand up this week.
“(Reid) hasn’t played for six weeks before that, so we covered him there, but it’s disappointing for him because we really rate him and the way he goes about it,” he said.
“It’s disappointing but someone will get a chance again, as we have done that all season, and whether that’s a Jesse White or Mitch Morton we’ll see how the team plans out.”
The co-captain added that the Swans would review last week’s clash with Melbourne this afternoon before turning their attention to GWS later this week.
“We’ll do our review of Melbourne today and then we’ll get into (GWS) on Thursday and get stuck into the footage and plan how to beat them,” he said.
