Sydney Swans forward Mitch Morton will play his first senior game of the year after being selected in the side for tomorrow night’s round four clash against Geelong at the SCG.

Swans coach John Longmire said Morton had shown enough good form with the Swans reserves over the past three weeks to earn his place on the field tomorrow night.

“He has been playing well in our reserves and has been putting pressure on and kicking goals in our reserves for a number of weeks now, so he gets his opportunity to come back into the team,” Longmire told sydneyswans.com.au.

Morton slotted 11 goals in the reserves 196-point win over Tuggeranong in the NEAFL last weekend, but Longmire stressed it was not only the forward’s goal kicking that had earned him a re-call.

“It was good to see him kick that many goals, but we did have an easy win in the reserves, so we were mindful of that,” Longmire said.

“But for Mitch, as it was last year, it’s not always about the goals; it was a combination of him hitting the scoreboard and everything else he was doing.”

Young defender Dane Rampe will play his second senior game for the club tomorrow night, with Longmire saying the 22-year-old just missed out on selection in previous weeks, and will provide versatility in the Swans backline against the Cats.

“Dane was OK the first round and he went back to the reserves last week and did quite well as well,” Longmire said.

“He can play a number of different roles for us and can play on different types of players, which is important.”

Longmire said that Craig Bird and Andrejs Everitt, who will make way for Morton and Rampe, were unlucky to miss out on selection for tomorrow night’s game.

“Birdy has been the sub for a couple of weeks and was strongly considered to come back into the 21 this week,” Longmire said.

“Everitt last week I thought was OK. He kicked two goals against Gold Coast and he probably could have had a few more and whilst he was a little bit quiet against North Melbourne, he certainly wasn’t going too badly.

“We just wanted to bring in a couple of blokes who had been playing well in our reserves and who had been putting pressure on and deserved their chance.”

Looking ahead to tomorrow night’s clash with Geelong at the SCG, Longmire said he was expecting nothing less than a tremendously competitive game.

“We’re expecting a typical game against Geelong and we know that Geelong has enormous talent and can move the ball very quickly and are ultra-competitive,” he said.

“They are never out of the games and they’ve been like that for a few years now and they are still like that.

“They’ve got a really good mix of players who have played in a number of premierships and are really experience, as well as some good young players as well.”

Sydney Swans v. Geelong Cats
SCG
Friday, April 19, 2013
7:50pm

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

In: M.Morton, D.Rampe
Out: C.Bird, A.Everitt

Milestone: S.Reid - 50 games , M.Pyke - 50 games