FOR THE second week running, the Sydney Swans took a big lead before letting it slip, but it was all positive for the club which finds itself atop the AFL ladder at the start of round 13.

Two weeks ago against Essendon, the Swans romped to an 11-goals-to-two advantage at three-quarter time, but only scraped home by four points.

It was a similar story on Friday night, with the home side kicking seven goals to one at quarter-time, before surviving a furious Cats rally to prevail 12.8 (80) to 11.8 (74) at the SCG.

Rather than being overly concerned about any fade-outs, however, the Swans believe what counts is the fact they are ending the games in front.??

"We're one week into the second half of the season and there's still a long way to go," defender Rhyce Shaw, one of the Swans' best, said afterwards.

"There's a lot of improvement left in us as a group and we have to make sure we start playing four-quarter footy.

"We need to play the footy we played in the first quarter for the whole game, but we take some confidence from this for sure.

"Geelong are a fantastic football side and we did it the hard way."

It was a sentiment shared by coach John Longmire, who knows his side can improve but would have to be thrilled with a 9-3 record heading into the business end of the season.

"Winning the close games makes a massive difference," Longmire said.

"The bottom line is you have to be in front when the final siren goes. That's the most important statistic of all.

"For the players to be able to do that and kick some important goals in the last quarter was terrific.

"Can we get better? Yeah we can get better and we have to get better.

"But I thought we did a lot of things right tonight.

"There's probably 18 or 19 premiership players in the opposition, so from that aspect it was fantastic."

Geelong was able to grind its way back into the contest after a poor opening term, kicking 10 goals to five after the first break.

While the Cats are in a finals dogfight at 7-5, Longmire was thrilled to knock off the premiers for a second straight time, although he did admit to some concerns in the frantic final quarter.

"They're a quality team Geelong, last year's premiers, coming back into some real form," Longmire said.

"For the players to come off Essendon, then the bye, and back up here against the Cats in a massive game for us, was a real credit to them.

"We started so well, I thought it was an arm-wrestle in the second and third quarters, and in the last quarter we just didn't win the ball.

"We stopped going at the footy. That's the most important thing at any time of the game, making sure you get your hands on the ball. We didn't do that in the last quarter."

James Dampney covers Sydney AFL news for AFL.com.au. Follow him on Twitter: @AFL_JD