SYDNEY Swans co-captain Brett Kirk says he’s desperate to lift his side to victory against Port Adelaide on Sunday as a tribute to his indigenous teammates Michael O’Loughlin and Adam Goodes.

The Swans will be looking to string consecutive wins for the first time this season and Kirk said there was no better time to do it than at home in the AFL’s Indigenous Round.

“They’re two guys with so much character about them and I just love playing football with them,” he said of O’Loughlin and Goodes.

“I know, speaking to both of them, how much being acknowledged this weekend means to them and I’ll be doing everything I can personally to help us get over the line.”

Kirk conceded that would be no easy task against a Power side that has improved dramatically after finishing 13th in 2008.

With veteran forward Warren Tredrea regaining some of his best form and the club’s young midfielders shouldering more of the load, Port Adelaide sits fourth on the ladder with five wins from eight games.

“In the pre-season competition, I looked at them and marked them as a side that was going to be up around the other top teams,” Kirk said.

“They’ve got some really good young players, they’ve got a good balance of inside players with strong bodies [and] they’ve got some really quick outside guys in [Danyle] Pearce, [David] Rodan and Peter Burgoyne who can really hurt you with the footy.”

Ryan O’Keefe has made his name as a hard-running half-forward but his shift into midfield in recent weeks has been a blessing for the Swans’ regular on-ballers, Kirk said.

“It’s been a real step forward for us and it’s taken a bit of the load from Jude and I in terms of the bullocking work that we do each week,” he said.

“He can go forward and also plays as a tall midfielder, probably similar to the way Adam does, but a bit more inside as well.”

With just two games separating third from 14th on the ladder, Kirk said this year’s premiership season was the most even competition he’d played in.

He said the Swans would continue to demand greater levels of consistency as they strived to match the current standouts St Kilda and Geelong.

“They’re getting such an even contribution and it just shows mentally that they’re turning up each week. Other sides have been up and down that’s where we’ve been at,” Kirk said.

“We’ve now got a mixture of youth and experience in our team and we just need to get everyone turning up each week and giving the same amount of contribution that we expect.”