There was a time when matches between the Sydney Swans and St Kilda weren’t always a spectacle for enthusiasts of high-scoring football.

For many years, clashes between the two sides resulted in defensive slogs, which were low-scoring, hard-fought and tense until the final siren.

There was the round one, 2008 contest at the Docklands, which saw the Saints score just 6.15 (51) to defeat the Swans 6.13 (49).

Before that, at the SCG in round 11, 2006, it was a similar story with St Kilda 7.10 (52) defeating Sydney 7.8 (50).

Additionally, between 2009 and early this season, neither team had cracked the 100 point total score in any home and away match between the two sides.

Currently the Saints and Swans are ranked third and fourth respectively for scoring this season, and in the two team’s most recent clash, St Kilda scored their highest score against the Swans in 11 years.

Swans coach John Longmire said the Swans experienced the Saints scoring ability first hand in round nine, and will need to work on stemming the flow of their scoring this weekend.

“St Kilda is the third highest scoring team in the competition and they are able to score heavily really quickly,” he said.

“They were able to do that in the second and third quarters (when we last played them) and ended up kicking 16 goals against us.

“That was disappointing and we need to try and do something about that, and we’ve got to make sure we try and do it on Sunday.”

Longmire identified that the Swans failed to get their hands on the ball first in the last contest, resulting in St Kilda firing off 31 scoring shots for the match.

“I don’t think we were great at the source, whether that was a stoppage situation or just a contested ball situation, we just weren’t good at getting our hands on it and they were,” Longmire said.

“They were able to use it a lot better than us and a lot more effectively and transferred it from where the source was to their forward line, and were able to do that a lot more effectively than we were.”

One area the Swans will be focused on this weekend will be keeping a close eye on the Saints’ small forwards.

Stephen Milne top-scored for the Saints with three goals last time, while Ahmed Saad - who was dominant in St Kilda’s come-from-behind win against the Lions last week - finished with two goals.

“(Their small forwards) are one of their real strengths,” Longmire said.

“Milne, we know what a player he has been for the St Kilda footy club over a long period of time.

“He’s a small forward who has kicked over 500 goals and that’s just an indication of how good of a player he’s been, and still is.

“Their other couple of young small forwards in the team is really creating a few headaches and gives them a few options forward of centre.

“We also know Adam Schneider is back in the team as well.”

It’s not only the Saints who have increased their scoring power this season, with the Swans already boasting three players who have kicked over 20 goals (Jetta 36, Reid 24, McGlynn 20) and have four others who are nearing the mark (Kennedy 18, Goodes 18, Jack 17, Bolton 15).

But despite both teams’ addition firepower, Longmire said he doesn’t want to see this weekend’s match turn into a ‘shootout’.

“We don’t look at coming into the game hoping to outscore the opposition in a shootout situation, I’m not too keen on that, and I’m sure most coaches aren’t,” he said.

“We just want to make sure our defensive aspects are really sound and sharp because we know, and we’ve experienced, that St Kilda can score heavily.

“We need to get our hands on the ball first and foremost, but if we don’t, we need to get our defensive mechanisms right so we are able to restrict them scoring, which obviously then gives us a chance.”