The trio come into the team in place of injured midfield pair Josh Kennedy and Craig Bird, who were ruled out last night, while Dean Towers has been omitted.
Speaking to SwansTV for Centrum Team Selection, John Longmire said it was important to get defensive duo Smith and Shaw back into the team for Sunday’s clash.
Sydney Swans v Western Bulldogs Match Day Information
“It’s good to get those two back,” Longmire said.
“They’ve played a lot of footy in our team, and particularly in our defence, and have done that really well, so it’s good to get them both back in the team.
“We’ve been missing Shawy for a bit of this year, and Nick for a couple of weeks, but they have been training really well this week, so they come back into the team.”
Longmire also welcomed the inclusion of young midfielder Tom Mitchell, who is set to play his first senior match since round four.
Longmire said it was a positive to see the 21-year-old back in the side after battling injury and struggling to find consistency in his training program during year.
“The last couple of weeks he’s been back on track with training, so it’s good to see Tommy back in the team,” he said.
“We’re obviously missing a couple of insiders with Kennedy and Bird out of the team, and Tommy is obviously a very good player inside the stoppages, so he comes back into the team and it’s good to get him back in.”
Sunday’s match will be the first match Kennedy will miss since he joined the club at the end of 2009, and will end his 127-consecutive-game streak.
Longmire said while Kennedy pulled up well from hamstring tightness suffered last week against St Kilda, the club needed to take the cautious approach with the star midfielder.
Sydney Swans v Western Bulldogs preview
“The doctor’s words were along the line of “If he gets to halfway through the second or the third quarter and tightened up again you’d be kicking yourself”, and that’s right,” he said.
“It wasn’t worth that risk primarily because we want to win this week and Josh at his best can certainly help us do that, there’s no doubt about that, but if he was off injured like he was last week, it would make it a bit more difficult.
“We made the decision to not play him, but he’s in good spirits and hopefully he has a good training week next week.”
The Swans will travel to Melbourne on Saturday afternoon ahead of Sunday’s clash with the Bulldogs, who will be looking to make amends for a 50-point loss to North Melbourne last week.
Longmire said the Swans couldn’t underestimate the Bulldogs, who boast a good mix of youth and experience in their line-up.
“They’ve got some terrific young players in (Marcus) Bontempelli and (Jackson) Macrae and all of those guys, so they’ve got some real talent in their team and the Bulldogs supporters really like going to watch those kids play,” he said.
“Then they’ve got the Cooneys and the Griffen-type players who are experienced, as well as (Robert) Murphy running around doing their thing as well, so they’ve got a good balance.
“They are elite at contested ball clearance work; they are very good at that so we need to make sure we get that part of our game right.
“We need to make sure we do the right thing and come in with a real professional attitude and performance.”
The Western Bulldogs have made four changes to their side which lost to North Melbourne last weekend, with Ayce Cordy, Jack Macrae, Nathan Hrovat and Lin Jong in in place of Will Minson, Jarrad Grant, Sam Darley and Lachie Hunter.
Hunter, Darley and Jason Tutt are the Bulldogs emergencies.
Sydney Swans v. Western Bulldogs
Etihad Stadium
Sunday, August 24, 2013
3.20pm
B D.Rampe, T.Richards, N.Smith
HB J.McVeigh, H.Grundy, G.Rohan
C N.Malceski, L.Parker, L.Jetta
HF A.Goodes, L.Franklin, J.Lloyd
F S.Reid, K.Tippett, H.Cunningham
Foll M.Pyke, D.Hannebery, K.Jack
I/C S.Biggs, J.Laidler, T.Mitchell, R.Shaw
Emg T.Membrey, T.Nankervis, D.Towers
In: R.Shaw, N.Smith, T.Mitchell
Out: J.Kennedy (hamstring), C.Bird (knee), D.Towers
