As the Sydney Swans prepare to face Collingwood in a sold out preliminary final at the SCG, the Swans enter on a high following an eight game winning streak, including a qualifying final at the MCG, and will almost certainly be unchanged for a fourth straight game.
The Swans will play just one game in three weeks in the lead up to Saturday’s preliminary final but the pre-finals bye coupled with the week off from the qualifying final triumph will have Sydney freshened up, but there’s always the concern of going into a monumental occasion a little bit cold.
Especially against a Collingwood side that can match the Swans’ manic pressure around the ball and is still riding a massive momentum wave.
Sydney coach John Longmire, however, is confident his side has struck the right balance to counter that concern as it gets set to play off for a place in the Grand Final.
“We had a tough training session on Saturday, a good hit out in warm conditions. That was good to have that under our belt,” Longmire said on Tuesday.
“It’s always a balancing act between making sure players don’t get injured and having a really good session. The players needed to have a good blowout, they pulled up well from it. That’s all you can do to prepare as best you can.”
The only injury concern for the Swans from their victory over the reigning premiers a fortnight ago was an ankle injury to in-form half-back Oli Florent, but he’s been in full training for the past week and has recovered fully.
Lance Franklin prepared away from the main group at Tuesday’s training session but that’s a common occurrence for the 35-year-old in his 17th season.
The eight time All-Australian will be in the unfamiliar situation of having the microscope placed on him come Saturday afternoon following his surprise seven-disposal, no-goal game against Melbourne two weeks ago, where he was blanketed by Steven May.
“That happens, even to the best. He’s put that behind him, he knows he’ll have a wonderful opponent again this week. It doesn’t get any easier but that’s what this time of the year is about,” Longmire said.
“He’s been training hard and he a good session on Saturday, a really hard session and pulled up well.”
Franklin did kick three goals, to add to his insane tally of 1045 goals all up, against Collingwood in round 22 where Sydney prevailed by 27 points in what was a high stakes affair that served as a pre-curser to this week’s preliminary final showdown.
The Swans will no doubt lean on the areas they were able to expose the Magpies in when they meet on Saturday afternoon.
One player who was absent for Collingwood in their SCG defeat in the penultimate round of the home and away season was Jordan De Goey, and he looms as a gamebreaker again for the Magpies after his 24-disposal, 12 score-involvement performance against Fremantle in the semi-final.
“Clearly he poses a big threat, he’s a very good player in great form. We look at that but we also look at Crisp, Pendelbury, Josh and Nick Daicos. They’ve got plenty of great players. It’s about the collective midfield group and making sure we get our two-way play that we like to play in good nick for Saturday,” Longmire said.
Tackling machine James Rowbottom may be asked to mind De Goey at times while Ryan Clarke is likely to get the forward tagging role on Nick Daicos again after limiting the Rising Star winner’s influence in their last clash.
While plenty of the Magpie army are likely to be in attendance at the SCG, the famous ground will be bathed in red and white for the first preliminary final to be held there since Tony Lockett’s famous winning point against Essendon in 1996.
“It’s great to have the opportunity to play the game on our home deck in front of our home crowd. It’s really exciting for us (and) our players, but critically our supporters to get behind the team. We’re really looking forward to it,” the Swans coach said.
