Coach John Longmire said Mumford was ready to go after missing two matches through suspension, and Jack, Smith and Malceski had all passed fitness tests at training today.

Trent Dennis-Lane, who was pencilled in to return to the seniors against the Suns this week, could not be added to the team because he hurt his foot before training this morning.

Longmire said it was an unfortunate injury, and a scan tomorrow would reveal its extent.

Dennis-Lane initially injured his foot during the reserves game last week but was able to do some training on Tuesday. However he hurt it again this morning and was unable to take the field for the all-important final training session of the week.

Five players have been omitted from the side that lost to Adelaide last week. They are Paul Bevan, Jesse White, Andrejs Everitt, Mark Seaby and Luke Parker.

Spangher will play his first senior game for the Swans after he was picked up in the fourth round of last year’s national draft (pick 73), as the coaching staff looked to bolster the defensive stocks.

But Longmire said today Spangher, 24, was likely to play in the forward line after impressing in the reserves.

“We’ve been playing Matty Spangher forward the last couple of weeks though we got him to the club as a defender,’’ Longmire said.

“We went into the draft and trading period with question marks on Craig Bolton and LRT, who’d had an operation. Our defensive stocks were quite thin last year, so we recruited Matt Spangher, as he was young, athletic and competitive.

“His greatest strength is that he’s a real competitor.’’

Spangher played 26 games with West  Coast after being recruited in the 2005 draft at pick 34.

He’s originally from Melbourne, and is another product of Xavier College - the same school that Dan Hannebery, Alex Johnson, Josh Kennedy and Ted Richards went to, meaning there will be five Xavier boys in the Swans team this Saturday night.

Longmire said he hoped Spangher would be able to give Sam Reid support in the forward line.

“One of the things he’s capable of doing is giving Sam Reid a bit of a hand at centre half forward. We’ve been conscious that we’ve got a 19 year old kid (Reid) playing centre half forward every week.’’

Longmire said Spangher could also go into defence at some stage, which would free Johnson to go forward, where he played much of his footy as a junior.

“Reidy will get a helping hand across half forward either way,’’ Longmire said.

“It is a big job he carries week in week out.’’

Mumford will come back into the side after serving a two week suspension, and Seaby will miss out as the coaching staff want to run with just one ruckman against the Suns.

“We want to give Mummy the best possible chance of getting back into touch, and that is to play him as much on ball as we can, rather than playing him forward,’’ Longmire said.

The team to play Gold Coast Suns is:

B: N.Smith, L.Roberts-Thomson, M.Mattner
HB: T.Kennelly, T.Richards, M.Spangher
C: B.McGlynn, C.Bird, J.McVeigh
HF: R.O'Keefe, S.Reid, J.Bolton
F: R.Shaw, H.Grundy, A.Goodes
Foll: S.Mumford, J.Kennedy, D.Hannebery 
I/C: K.Jack L.Jetta, A.Johnson, N.Malceski    
Emg: J.Moore, L.Parker, M.Seaby

 

In: N.Malceski , K.Jack , N.Smith , M.Spangher , S.Mumford
Out: M.Seaby, P.Bevan, J.White, A.Everitt, L.Parker