The Sydney Swans have made one change for Sunday’s round six clash against the Brisbane Lions, with midfielder Jed Lamb set to make his AFL debut.

The 20-year-old, who is in his third year at the club, comes into the side in place of Andrejs Everitt who will return to the Swans reserves this week.

Swans coach John Longmire said it was always exciting to give a young player their first shot at AFL football.

“It’s one of the really good parts of the job, telling a young player that he’s got his first game and I was able to do that with Jed after he spent three-and-a-half hours hanging around outside my office,” Longmire told SwansTV.

“It was a great thing to be able to say to him that he was going to play his first ever game of AFL football, because you only ever get to do that once.”

The coach said that Lamb was one of the top performers in the Swans pre-season program and had earned his place in the senior side this week.

“He’s a smart player who really started off as a small forward and has got his fitness level to a stage where he’s able to play through the midfield as well and he uses the ball so well and brings other players into the game,” Longmire said.

“He’s got his fitness levels right up now and he’s had a good year over two seasons and a fantastic pre-season and hopefully he gets reward for effort and can contribute to a good strong game for us.”

Longmire said that Everitt, who has played three senior games for the Swans this season, should use his time in the reserves to regain his best form.

“(Everitt’s) just got to make sure he grabs his opportunities in the seniors when he gets them and don’t let them slip,” he said.

“There have been plenty of players who have had those opportunities over the years and they either go one way or the other and grab the opportunities and make the most of them or they go back to the reserves and then they have to do it again.

“We’re confident that Andrejs’ best footy is really good strong footy for us and he’ll play a number of different roles for us and we’re just hoping that he can get a bit more consistency with his performance.”

Looking ahead to Sunday afternoon’s contest, Longmire said the Swans would need to limit Brisbane’s uncontested possessions and scoring opportunities, adding that the hosts would need to make the most of their own scoring chances this weekend to get on top of the Lions.

“They have actually had more scoring shots than us and have been getting opportunities to get on the scoreboard and I think what’s been reflected a little bit has been their accuracy,” Longmire said.

“Other than that, they’ve been getting a hold of the footy and that’s a real challenge to be able to stop their run and overlap handball, which is a real part of their game and is a strong part of their game and is something they did successfully during the pre-season.

“We need to make sure we reduce that and when we get our turn and our opportunity we need to make sure we put some scoreboard pressure on."

Sydney Swans v. Brisbane Lions
SCG
Sunday, May 5, 2013
1.10pm

B N.Malceski, H.Grundy, N.Smith
HB M.Mattner, T.Richards, J.McVeigh
C L.Jetta, R.O’Keefe, B.McGlynn
HF D.Hannebery, S.Reid, K.Jack
F A.Goodes, M.Pyke, J.Bolton
Foll S.Mumford, J.Kennedy, L.Parker
I/C T.Armstrong, C.Bird, J.Lamb, D.Rampe

In: J.Lamb
Out: A.Everitt