Speaking to the media on Monday afternoon, Swans coach John Longmire said that Reid, who was handed the red vest at three-quarter time after jarring his knee in a marking contest, would train as usual this week and was considered a good chance to take his place in Saturday’s decider against Hawthorn at the MCG.
Sydney Swans Open Training Session - SCG - Tuesday September 23 - 1.30pm to 3.30pm - more
“He’s pulled up really well,” Longmire told reporters.
“He’s got better as the days have progressed and he’s feeling good today so we expect him to train on Thursday and be available to play.
“There is always doubt unless you do the full training session, but at this stage our medical advice is that we expect him to play.”
The Swans will head into Saturday’s Grand Final in good health, with Longmire confirming that his team had recovered well from Friday night’s 71-point victory over the Roos.
The coach said while there was mounting pressure from a number of young players who missed out on selection last week, there was a good chance the Swans would go into Saturday’s clash unchanged.
“Everyone coming out of that game pulled up pretty well, so they’ll train tomorrow,” he said.
“We’ve got a few blokes who are knocking on the door, but at this stage we’ve gone in unchanged last week and we were pretty happy with that.
“Whether that happens or not this week, I couldn’t guarantee it, but we were pretty happy with the 22 that played.”
While the Swans ended up with a comfortable victory leading into the Grand Final, the Hawks preliminary final against Port Adelaide was a thriller, with Hawthorn prevailing by just three points against a fast-finishing Power side.
Longmire said he didn’t believe there was a preferred scenario heading into the decider, but said he expected the Hawks would be switched on and ready to go after their close contest.
“I don’t think there is any right or wrong way,” he said.
“You’ve just got to win the prelim final to get through, and then you focus on the next week.
“It was obviously a solid game and they were well in front at times during the course of the game, and then Port Adelaide were able to come back in the last quarter.
“That was a good, hard, solid hit-out for them and they’ll be ready to go.”
Longmire said the Swans’ performance on Friday night, which saw the side win every quarter against the Roos, was also a good preparation for the Grand Final, but said there was always more work to be done leading into the big one.
“We had virtually a full team go in, but generally from the first bounce through to the final siren, I thought it was a very even performance from our 22,” he said.
“We kept working that two-way game we pride ourselves on up and down the ground, and working hard until the final siren, so we were really happy with that.
“To finish the game off strongly and to continue to the final siren was a really good sign.
“But there’s things we’ll get better at and we’ll sit down today and look at our review, as we do every other Monday, and there were some things that we weren’t happy with that we’d like to get right.
“When you play against a team like Hawthorn, we didn’t get it right last time against them for four quarters and we got beaten, so we need to get it right for the whole four quarters this time.”
