Sydney Swans coach John Longmire addressed the media at the SCG on Tuesday morning.

Sydney overcame North Melbourne at Etihad Stadium on Sunday and is now set to host the Gold Coast Suns at the SCG on Saturday afternoon.

Here are some a key quotes from the press conference.

Injury update

“Nothing is certain at this stage in the week. It’s only Tuesday so it’s still a bit early to be declaring players in or out. With Kieren Jack and Heath Grundy we’ll see how the week pans out and Josh Kennedy is in a similar boat. He’s a bit better today than what he was yesterday but we’ll just have to wait and see. We won’t know until Thursday or maybe even Friday as to how he’s feeling. Josh is getting better and his back complaint has happened to him before and he was able to get up and play that particular week. But while it’s happened to him before, we’re not quite sure. Every occasion something like this happens, with any injury to any player, you’re not quite sure what the outcome is so early in the week. So we’ll wait and see.”

Gaining momentum from the Roos clash

“Making sure you celebrate the wins – you’ve got to make sure you do that. It’s a tough game and we had such a young group on Sunday and to be able to feed off that and use that positive energy is very important. We know we have to get the job done again this week against Gold Coast on a lovely afternoon. We need to make sure we use what he learned out of last week in a positive sense.”

Preparing for Gold Coast

“We always look at the opposition’s best and what it looks like. They had 10 scoring shots in the first quarter last week against Essendon. We’ll prepare our players for that and we have to make sure we go out and play an absolutely hard brand of footy regardless of who we play and this week it’s against the Gold Coast Suns. We need to play a fierce brand of footy no matter who we play.”

Facing former Swans assistant Stuart Dew

“Stuart is fortunate that he’s got Mark Evans, Gold Coast’s chief executive, who’s a very experienced football person up there with him. I’m sure the Suns are on top of what they need to do and are learning a lot. But this week is definitely about us trying to beat the Gold Coast Suns and that’s what we’ll focus on.”

Aliir Aliir’s dazzling form

“He’s been affected by injury at various times over the past couple of years and you’re not going to get everything right. But he’s got back to some really good form and fitness. We wanted him to get that form and fitness in the NEAFL to give him the best possible chance to play some good senior football. The same goes for Colin O’Riordan or anyone like that. Aliir has come in and made a real impact over the last three weeks. He’s been consistent and is hopefully getting even better. That’s what we’re looking forward to. It was a tough game on the weekend, it will be another tough game this week and all of our players, including Aliir, need to keep on improving.”

A family-friendly time slot

“We’re really keen for as many Swans supporters as possible to get to the SCG and enjoy the 2:10pm start. It’s a great opportunity for families. They can do what they need to do in the morning, come to the football in the afternoon and enjoy the game. Hopefully it’s a really high-pressure, quality game and then you get home at a reasonable hour. It’s a great time slot for families and we want as many families as we can possibly get here at the footy.”