SYDNEY Swans coach John Longmire has played down suggestions his ladder-leading team has become premiership contenders after ending West Coast's 18-game undefeated run at Patersons Stadium.

Longmire praised ruck duo Shane Mumford and Mike Pyke for breaking even with Dean Cox and Nic Naitanui, while his midfielders won the contested ball.

But he said West Coast had been without several of its best players in the 52-point thrashing.

"I understand people want to talk about September now but I don't focus on it because it's only July," he said.

"There's a long way to go. I'm just really pleased with the style of footy we are playing and that's what we have got to try to keep doing.

"The challenge ahead of us is to keep playing that strong contested ball, two-way footy and try and keep that going for as long as we can. That's all we worry about. That other stuff we don't worry about at this point in time."

He said he wasn't concerned how football pundits viewed the Swans' chances of winning the flag.

"What happens outside the ... footy club is really up to everyone else, we have very little control over that," he said.

"We really concentrate on what we can control from week to week and our preparation and how we go about our footy is paramount to us."

Longmire said the Swans were no longer reliant on Adam Goodes to win games for them and players including Sam Reid, Lewis Jetta, Daniel Hannebery and Alex Johnson were "kids" who could now be relied upon to regularly perform.

"(But) we are not sitting here happy with absolutely everything we did," he said.

"We know we can keep getting better.  We know we do have to keep getting better. We play St Kilda at home next week. It's a huge game for us. Apart from the first quarter, last time we played them we were pretty poor and we need to improve against them."

Longmire also paid tribute to midfielder Craig Bird for the way in which he quelled the influence of West Coast defender Shannon Hurn.

He said defender Lewis Roberts-Thomson had been cleared of any serious injury after he was taken to hospital following a collision with West Coast's Jacob Brennan.