Swans coach John Longmire will be looking to improve on last year’s winning percentage at the SCG, starting with Saturday afternoon’s game against Fremantle.

The Swans, who hosted eight games at the SCG last year, won 50 per cent of matches on their home turf, losing to Geelong, Hawthorn, Carlton and Fremantle throughout the 2011 season.

Longmire said this weekend’s match against the Dockers, who were the last team to beat the Swans at home, was the perfect opportunity for the team to stamp their authority on the SCG this season.

“(Freo) will be a good test for us, and it will be a good test for us on our home ground,” he said.



“Our (home ground win/loss percentage) is something we’d like to better our record (from) what we had last year,” he said.

“It will really test our team and that’s what we’re really looking forward to.

“We certainly are looking forward to the game. (Fremantle) will be up and about we know that, so we know we’ve got to match them early and really take it up to them.

“We’ve had the weekend off and we look forward to playing Fremantle back at the SCG.”

Longmire said not only does his team need to use their home ground to advantage, they also need to continue to close the gap on the competition’s top teams.

“We played a couple of the really good teams (at the SCG last season) and we need to increase across the board our general measurement against the best teams.

“We’ve got Freo this week and we certainly think they should be talked about as one of the top teams in the competition, and their form in round one certainly suggests that.

“We know we need to improve in general across the board against those top teams.”

Longmire said the Dockers first round form was outstanding, and said the Swans will need to take their game to another level this weekend.

“It was a magnificent round of football and we need to make sure we’ve improving at the same rate, if not better than our opponents,” he said.

“(Freo) kicked five goals to zero half way through the first quarter and they were right on, and we need to make sure we get off to a good start here at the SCG.

“We need to make sure we approach the game at our home ground with the same sort of manner and we need to make sure we’re up and about and ready to go.

“It’s a contested, fierce game of footy that we’re looking forward to playing.”