Gary Rohan showed the football world his worth in a standout performance against Hawthorn at the SCG on Thursday night.

The Swans speedster played arguably one of his most important matches of the season booting four of his team's 10 goals for the match.

After overcoming hamstring issues earlier in the season, he returned to the side in Round 9 against the Hawks to boot three goals.

He backed up that performance in the second meeting between the two teams under the SCG lights.

Rohan was lively up forward with not just his goal scoring and aerial ability but his defensive pressure was also outstanding.

Coach John Longmire said Rohan was an important ingredient to a well functioning Swans forward line.

“He took some great contested marks, launched the ball really well and gave a really good option in our front half.”

“Gary is a good player for us and we really rate him when he is running around like that.

“He doesn’t have to get a lot of possessions to have an impact, but tonight he obviously got the reward on the scoreboard so that was a really good sign.”

The Swans' narrow five-point loss to Hawthorn will make for an interesting weekend of football as the snakes and ladders of the 2016 top-eight continues.

Had the Swans defeated the Hawks they would have sat on top of the ladder, instead they could drop as low as seventh by the end of the round.

Longmire was optimistic that his side still had plenty to achieve with six rounds remaining in the season.

"We win tonight and we're on top of the ladder, so I'm still pretty confident with the year we've got," he said.

"I think we've made some giant steps forward and I think we've still got a fair bit of footy to play this year."

Round 18 will see Sydney take on Carlton at the SCG on Saturday afternoon.