Sydney Swans co-captain Jarrad McVeigh believes his forwards could be the difference between winning and losing this week’s crucial clash with the Western Bulldogs, but not because of their goalscoring power.
Triple Coleman Medal winner Lance Franklin and young gun Isaac Heeney bring the star factor for the Swans, but McVeigh is counting on his teammates to do their best work off the ball.
The Bulldogs’ backline bring plenty of attacking drive from deep in their own half, despite the fact that captain Bob Murphy (knee), and fellow running defenders Jason Johannisen (hamstring) and Easton Wood have missed large chunks of this season.
Heeney laid 13 tackles in his side’s win over Melbourne before last week’s bye, while George Hewett (nine), James Rose (eight), Franklin (seven), Ben McGlynn (six) and Gary Rohan (four) were also fanatical with their pressure inside 50.
The Swans forwards play a key role in harassing their opposition most weeks, but McVeigh said against the Bulldogs they would become even more important.
"The Bulldogs have got a lot of elite ball users who do run the footy out well and have a lot of pace," he said.
"They also use the ball pretty well in slow play, so there’s a lot of different avenues that they use to bring the ball out of defence.
"With 'Bud' (Lance Franklin), Gary (Rohan), Ben McGlynn and James Rose up there, chasing those guys down and putting pressure on them will be a huge part of the game for us.
"We value out forward pressure and the work off the ball, and those guys will have to bring that this weekend.
"If we can force them to defend one on one, we think that could be a good area for us.
"We’ve got forwards who have elite pace so we back our guys one on one - we can’t allow them to play the way they want, you have to take it away from them."
McVeigh will achieve AFL life membership this week in his 277th game for the Swans which, added to his 20 pre-season matches and three International Rules appearances, takes him to the 300-mark.
Having overcome a delayed start to the season thanks to off-season knee surgery, the 2012 premiership midfielder has shown some of his best form in the Swans’ last four games before the bye.
The 31-year-old had at least disposals in each of those matches across half-back, which included a best on ground performance against Melbourne.
The veteran said he was happy with his role in defence after also playing as a forward, on the wing and through the midfield at times this season, but didn’t want to take credit for the form of youngster Zak Jones.
Jones, who spent most of the pre-season in the gym alongside McVeigh after his own bout of knee surgery, has also worked his way into fantastic form, and had a career-high 25 possessions playing as a running defender against the Demons.
“His last month has been outstanding,” McVeigh said of Jones.
“He’s a critical part of our rotation, he’s hard at the man, he’s hard at the ball, and also provides that bit of class on the outside.
“We’ll be looking for more of that from him over the course of the year and throughout his career.
“We’ve got ‘Jonesy’ and Callum Mills who are playing some really good footy in that area, and they’ve got the ability to play in all different positions as well.
“I think that’s a real strength of our smaller half-back types.
“I hope I’ve helped them but they play their own game really well - you don’t have to look after them too much.
“They know the structures, they know how we set up and I’ve got full trust in those guys that they know what they’re doing.
“Being experienced is not necessarily about telling them what to do because they definitely know what their roles are down there.”
