Don't miss any of the news involving the Swans as we bring you everything from the newspapers around the country from Friday 4th September.

THE Sydney Swans have some of the greatest indigenous players to have played AFL in Adam Goodes, Lance Franklin and Lewis Jetta — now one of their former greats, Michael O’Loughlin, thinks he may have found talent to match them.

The Sydney Academy coach put 80 indigenous boys aged 11 to 15 through their paces in a talent assessment for inclusion in the successful program.

“My vision is for a kid from Redfern to go on and play for the Swans,” O’Loughlin told The Daily Telegraph.

“The aboriginal people from around Sydney, La Perouse, Matraville and Maroubra love the Swannies.

“Now the next step is to try and get these boys to engage and try to take up the sport and become a part of our academy and one or two go on and play in the big time.”

SYDNEY are taking no chances with defender Nick Smith and have rested him for tomorrow night’s final round against Gold Coast at the SCG.

Smith felt a twinge in his hamstring during last Sunday’s thrashing of St Kilda at Etihad Stadium and was taken from the ground immediately.

“If he was fit he would have played, but coming off a six day break there was no way we were going to take that risk,” Swans coach John Longmire said.

Lance Franklin is set to play his first full game in more than seven weeks on Saturday night as part of the most potent forward line Sydney have assembled since the middle of the season.

And the Swans could get even more scoring power next week for the start of the finals. Just a few weeks after the Swans' premiership campaign seemed to be unravelling at a rate of knots, there is now huge cause for optimism at the SCG on the eve of the finals.

Barring any mishaps on the injury front against Gold Coast on Saturday night, there is the distinct possibility the Swans will enter the finals series with only Luke Parker unavailable from their best 22.

If Sydney coach John Longmire is concerned about Fremantle or North Melbourne resting players and the potential ramifications for his AFL club, he’s not letting on.

Longmire is adamant about one thing — he won’t rest players from the Swans’ final-round home game tomorrow against Gold Coast. A win will secure Sydney fourth spot at worst and set up a potential first-week finals clash away to Fremantle, who are resting a host of players in their last-round game.

North have also flagged their intention to rest players and, if Richmond beat the Kangaroos and Sydney lose to the Suns, the Tigers could displace the Swans from the top four.

With Sydney in control of their own destiny as far as a top four spot is concerned, Longmire isn’t immediately fretting about other teams resting players.

The substitute will disappear next year, with clubs to field four interchange players but with reduced rotations.

The controversial interchange cap of 120 for the past two seasons will be reduced to 90 from 2016.

AFL general manager of football operations Mark Evans yesterday said the commission had accepted a recommendation at its meeting in Hobart last week that the use of the substitute player be removed, returning to four interchange players.

Clubs will also be allowed any changes made at quarter breaks — up to 12 across the three breaks — while forced blood rule, concussion assessment and stretcher changes would not count as part of the rotations.

THE biggest overhaul of Sydney’s sports stadiums is set to begin under a $1.5 billion plan expected to be approved today.

World-class football stadiums will be built at Moore Park and Parramatta, while Sydney’s former Olympics Stadium could be fully roofed and transformed into a permanent rectangular arena.

A 12,000-seat indoor stadium would also be built near the city for about $200 million. Premier Mike Baird and his cabinet are expected to sign off on the plan today, high-level sources told The Daily Telegraph.

The government initially intended to invest just $600 million but Mr Baird believes at least $1.5 billion will be needed to ensure Sydney is capable of competing with Melbourne and other cities for major events: “We want to be the best city in the world and, as part of that, you need sports facilities, you need cultural facilities.’’