Sydney Swans defender Dane Rampe will make his AFL debut this weekend, while fellow defender Tony Armstrong and forward Ben McGlynn have also been included in the Swans’ team who will take on GWS at ANZ Stadium on Saturday afternoon.

Swans defenders Marty Mattner and Nick Smith will also take the field this weekend after injury-interrupted pre-season campaigns, leaving Mitch Morton, Craig Bird and the injured Alex Johnson as the 2012 premiership players to miss the club’s opening round clash.

Speaking to SwansTV ahead of Saturday’s Sydney Derby, coach John Longmire said the selection committee was blessed with a relatively fit list ahead of round one.

“We’ve got a strong list to select from, which is what you aim to do over the pre-season months to get yourself in the position where you can have most of your players available for round one,” he said.

“The majority of our list is available, which is fantastic.

“Probably the ones who aren’t playing from the end of last year are Mitch Morton, who probably needs another hit-out in our reserves, which will be good for him.

“The other one is Craig Bird who won’t play as well. He’s had a bit of a disrupted pre-season and has missed a couple of games.”

Longmire said Rampe, who was taken by the club at pick 37 in the AFL Rookie Draft, had proven himself throughout the NAB Cup and deserved his chance at senior football this week.

“He’s just been able to compete pretty strongly and has just been able to do a good job for us every game he’s played,” the coach said of Rampe.

“He can play on taller players and smaller players and with that ability, it gives us some flexibility with our back six.

“He’s really impressed with his running – he’s a fantastic runner – and he competes really hard and has been doing a good job.”

Longmire added that he was pleased to see the return of livewire forward Ben McGlynn, as well as Tony Armstrong, who was on the brink of selection for many games in 2012.

“Benny McGlynn comes back into the team and he’s had a good strong pre-season in terms of minutes played and he’s played a lot of footy,” he said.

“Tony Armstrong is another one who has played well over the summer who comes back in and gives us something a bit different, which is what we want.”

Looking ahead to Saturday afternoon’s Sydney Derby III, Longmire said there was no doubt that GWS would be a much-improved team after a strong pre-season.

“They’ve obviously become more mature and are a bit stronger being another 12 months into the system,” he said.

“They are certainly playing a more refined game style now and they developed that over the past 18 months, so they are really working on that aspect of their game.

“They’ve got some enormous talent, we know that and it’s been stocked up further over the summer months with players like Lachie Whitfield.

“They’re competitive and we respect the way they go about their footy and I’m sure it will be a tough game for us.”

GWS v Sydney Swans
Saturday, March 30, 2013
ANZ Stadium

B R.Shaw, H.Grundy, N.Smith
HB M.Mattner, T.Richards, N.Malceski
C B.McGlynn, D.Hannebery, L.Jetta
HF K.Jack, S.Reid, R.O'Keefe
F M.Pyke, A.Goodes, J.Bolton
Foll S.Mumford, J.Kennedy, J.McVeigh
I/C T.Armstrong, L.Parker, D.Rampe, L.Roberts-Thomson
Emg A.Everitt, J.Lamb, J.White

New: D.Rampe (UNSW)