Sydney Swans coach John Longmire is planning to go in to Friday night’s qualifying final against Hawthorn at the MCG with a multi-pronged attack.

Despite falling 12 points short of the Hawks last Friday night, the Swans had ten individual goal kickers for the match, the most even spread of goal kickers since the round 19 win over the Western Bulldogs.

With Kurt Tippett expected to return to the side for this week’s final, Longmire said his leading goal scorer would add another option up forward, but would not be the only focus for his team inside 50.

“We saw on the weekend that it wasn’t just about our forwards, it was about our midfielders, and their accountability and transition both ways was back to the standard that we really wanted it to be,” Longmire said.

“That was important for us and allowed us to use a number of different targets when going forward, and that will be the same this week with Kurt back in the team.

“We need to be making sure with our run and carry and transition work in the midfield that we use a number of different options going forward.

“One will be Kurt, and he’s been a really important player in our front half.”

The team’s three pillars of Tippett, Jesse White and the rotation of ruckmen Mike Pyke and Shane Mumford are likely to present as tall targets in the Swans’ forward line this week against the Hawks.

Pyke, who is ranked second in the competition for contested marks, has been important for the Swans up forward this season with 26 goals, while Mumford has been on a steady improve and finished last Friday night’s match with 17 disposals, four marks and two goals.

But for Longmire, the biggest improver has been White, who was the Swans’ equal leading goal kicker on Friday night with three goals.

Longmire said White, who missed out on last year’s finals campaign, would be an important forward option this September.

“Jesse hit the scoreboard with three goals, but his pressure was good as well,” the coach said.

“He’s very quick for a big man and he’s able to get on the deck and chase and tackle and that makes him a difficult match up at times, especially the way he’s playing at the moment, he’s in reasonable form and he’s confident, so that’s a good sign for him.

“He was outnumbered a few times in the air and he launched himself at it and brought the ball to ground and then got after it at ground level and he is hard to match up on the deck because he’s so agile.

“We were pretty happy with him, even though he only had 12 possessions, he kicked three goals and his pressure was pretty good.”

With the Swans’ first final just three days away, Longmire said the team would need to continue to make the most of their forward entries following a spate of missed opportunities last Friday night.

The coach said his team’s ability to hit-up the Swans’ big-three forwards would go a long way towards their success this finals series.

“We’ve got to be careful because at times we were a little bit sloppy at kicking the ball into our front half last week and we probably mucked up a few opportunities,” Longmire said.

“The inside 50 count in the first three quarters we were in front, but we just mucked up a few of those entries.

“This week Kurt comes back in and hopefully that’s another target that we’ll have and I think that Pykey is certainly marking it pretty well as well.

“Those boys in our front half are pretty important for us and will be again this week.”