Don't miss any of the news involving the Swans as we bring you everything from the newspapers around the country from over the weekend.

THE Sydney Swans ripped fourth spot from Richmond’s grasp after smashing St Kilda by 97 points at Etihad Stadium yesterday.

With one round to play, the all-important top-four spot is Sydney’s to lose after the drubbing put them a game clear of the Tigers and Dogs.

Young gun Isaac Heeney kicked an equal career-best four goals and was one of 10 different goal kickers for Sydney.

The Swans dominated from the outset, kicking a season high 135 points and the last 10 goals of the match.

CONSECUTIVE wins over Collingwood, GWS and St Kilda are nothing to write home about but things are looking a lot rosier for the Swans.

It’s not who they’ve beaten or the winning margins that gives a glimmer of hope to the Swans faithful but the personnel who are playing well.

Kurt Tippett, Isaac Heeney and Mike Pyke are the ones who can have a real impact in September and have a say in who wins the premiership.

Something new is always better than something old.

But it says plenty about the fickle nature of the football media that more good judges have been willing to write off Sydney as a legitimate premiership contender than teams like West Coast, the Western Bulldogs or Richmond.

In fact, there seemed to be a collective hope, if not a quiet confidence, from many non-Swans supporters that the recent signs of Sydney’s vulnerability could extend to a shock loss to the plucky St Kilda on Sunday – thus opening the door for the sexier Bulldogs or success-starved Richmond to snatch the top-four position needed to win a flag.

Not only was any hope of an upset that would expose the Swans as pretenders shut down midway through the first quarter, the encounter at Etihad Stadium became a showcase of why John Longmire’s team should be given at least the same benefit of the doubt afforded to fellow established teams like Hawthorn and Fremantle.

Sydney are in the box seat to lock up a top-four finish after they made light work of St Kilda at Etihad Stadium yesterday.

With Richmond and Western Bulldogs nipping at their heels, the Swans couldn’t afford a slip-up but they were rarely troubled by the Saints on their way to a 20.15 (135) to 4.14 (38) win.

There’s nothing quite like having a mum revealing intimacies about her son to knock the macho mystique from an AFL star as cleanly as a Sherrin slipping from his hands.

At this month’s annual Sydney Swans Ladies lunch held at the SCG’s Noble Dining Room, the 500 strong crowd of footy fans, partners and players’ families heard plenty of fascinating information about the elite playing side that has nailed two grand finals.

This is because key to these long lunches, along with their pampering stations, the sinful desserts and the crammed goodie bags on every seat, is the stories that women tell each other. This is especially true for the players’ families who share “survivors’ tales” of this tough code (one player’s mother could reel off technical medical terms, thanks to her son’s injuries, with such elan she could have been on ER). This annual bonding session strengthens the families’ connection to each other, to the Sydney Swans and to the sport.

Plenty of footy teams in all codes embrace their female supporters (in a good way) but at the Sydney Swans, it’s the women who are the backbone of the club.

THERE aren’t too many perfect endings to sporting careers but St Kilda’s Adam Schneider will get closer than most players ever do.

Schneider will today play his last game in the AFL (game 228) against the Sydney Swans, the team he started with and played 98 games for, including the drought-breaking premiership in 2005.

There are only three players still in action from the 2005 triumph. One is Adam Goodes and, strangely enough, the other two play for the Saints — Schneider and Sean Dempster.

“It’s going to be good,” Schneider told The Sunday Telegraph.

“It’s a bit of a fairy-tale to play against the old team and to play against my mates and some I’ll have for life. I’m sure I’ll look back in a few years and be pretty pumped I got to do it against Sydney.”

LANCE Franklin said there was no big secret what the Swans needed to get out of the last two games of the season — consistency.

“Buddy” returns to action today at Etihad Stadium against St Kilda, in his first game in four weeks after straining his back and hurting a rib cartilage. It’s his longest break on the sidelines since joining the Swans, but he’s confident two games is all he needs to find fitness and form ahead of September action.

He said Sydney must win today and next week at the SCG against Gold Coast to ensure a top-four finish, then anything can happen.

Sydney ruckman Mike Pyke might not know it but St Kilda's Jason Holmes, who last week became the first born-and-raised American to play in the AFL, has paid close attention to his career for several years now – and not because of their unusual path to the AFL.

The former US college footballer was at the inaugural AFL USA combine. Prospective recruits were shown a video of the final quarter of the 2012 grand final. Not only would they have seen one of the best finals of the modern era, but also Pyke's coming of age as a player.

"I saw Pyke take those contested marks late when they needed it ... I really took an interest in the Swans," Holmes says.

But that is not why Richards holds such strong views against the trade restrictions placed on the Swans. He just believes they are wrong. Full stop.

"I'm pretty disappointed by that ban," Richards says. "In life you hope that the punishment fits the crime. In this case I know what the punishment is, I just don't know what the crime was."

I cheer them at home and away, Buddy, Goodes and McVeigh. To have the chance to kick with Lance would be my greatest day.

IT is the limerick that gave 11-year-old Ronan O’Meara the experience of a lifetime — a one-on-one kicking lesson from Swans champion Lance Franklin on the SCG.

Buddy is one of the longest kicks in the game, but it was strictly sharp shooting around the goals for their Daily Telegraph masterclass, which Ronan won with his clever verse.

“He taught me dribble kicks along the boundary,” Ronan said.

“He told me to hold the ball lower and drop in closer to my foot.” The timing of the tutorial couldn’t be better for Ronan, who plays in a grand final next weekend.

“I started five years ago and I play for Cronulla under-11s. This will be my first grand final in AFL. I’ve played in a cricket grand final and won bowling my leg-spin. I’m nervous until the first goal then I don’t really notice after that,” he said.

THE Swans could still play a final at the SCG with a potential clash looming with the NRL in the second week of finals.

The current agreement is for the AFL to play all its finals at ANZ Stadium but a possible clash would see the AFL switch the match to the SCG.

The Daily Telegraph believes the SCG is the preferred venue for the AFL for finals matches and should the opportunity arise they will engineer a clash with the NRL finals to have any playoff at the SCG.

Next year will be the last year the Swans play any of their home games at ANZ Stadium with a 30-year deal in place with the SCG starting in 2017.

America v Canada ... in the centre of Etihad Stadium.

St Kilda’s Chicago-born Jason Holmes will take on Sydney’s Canadian ruckman Mike Pyke in a marketer’s dream match-up tomorrow.

It’s taken 150 years but talent boss Kevin Sheehan says the AFL’s first all North American contest won’t be the last. Pyke’s role in the Swans’ 2012 premiership was the spur for the move to recruit American athletes to the AFL.

“Mike was the inspiration for the whole thing,” Sheehan said. “We were thinking about the whole thing when Mike played that vital role in winning the premiership for Sydney. It was a brilliant day in our minds for the concept. Look at the impact a player from North America can have on the biggest stage.

“We’ve gone from Jim Stynes winning a Brownlow Medal to Mike Pyke winning a grand final, which is almost as prestigious. It gave us confidence to know we were on the right track signing guys from North America.”