The Sydney Swans defence stood tall against Hawthorn at the MCG on Friday night to keep them to their lowest score of the season.

Led by Heath Grundy and Dane Rampe the Swans defence stood tall to limit the Hawks to just seven goals for the match.

Ted Richards left the field with concussion during the first quarter leaving the defence one man down for the majority of the game.

Coach John Longmire praised the performance of his experienced defenders in leading the way.

“Henry Playfair and our defensive group worked really hard this week and knew they were up against a pretty talented forward line,”

“We had Jones, Mills and those younger guys in our backline and we thought our older guys did a really good job.

“Particularly after Ted went off it was important (the senior players stood up) with those younger guys around.”

In his 150^th match small defender Nick Smith kept Hawthorn livewire Cyril Rioli goalless.

“We worked really well as a team tonight to help each other out,” Smith said post-match.

“Our tackling was really good as was our general intensity around the ball.”