Sydney small forward Tom Papley says that despite the absence of Lance Franklin, who was ruled out by the AFL Tribunal and will miss the Swans’ upcoming Round 12 fixture against the premiers, the red and white still remain confident ahead of their clash with Melbourne at the MCG.
The Swans are coming off a thrilling 6-point victory over Richmond and will name their team, including Franklin’s replacement, late Thursday June 2.
Papley is confident in his teammates to continue their strong form in the forward line.
"It’s obviously disappointing but in previous years we’ve actually done well without him,” Papley said.
“Will Hayward’s kicking goals, Isaac Heeney, Sam Reid last week kicked three. I’m confident the boys can get the system going without him.”
Sydney will be trying to inflict Melbourne’s first back-to-back defeats since round 15 and 16 of 2020, which coincidentally came against Fremantle - who they lost to last week - and the Swans.
Papley said they’ve had a close review of how the Dockers executed their triumph on the MCG.
"We’ve had a look and we’ll train that today. We’ve got a plan we’ll go with that plan and hopefully come out on top," he said.
"We played them last year at the MCG and we were 10 points off them. We were in the game the whole game and provided pressure. It was a bit like a finals game and we’re expecting the same this week," he said.
The Swans will need to remedy their biggest flaw for the campaign to date with their slow starts becoming a major issue.
John Longmire’s side have lost seven of their 10 first quarters so far this season and can't afford to give the Demons the jump on Saturday night.
"We’ve spoken about it. We started well on the weekend and then the second quarter we slipped. We’re trying things," Papley said.
"On game day we changed the meeting, we used to have it earlier now we have it later. Sometimes we might have a poor warm up and start hot and then other times the energy is high and we start poor, so it’s a hard one to understand."
When it comes to finding the right energy source though, Papley is quite often the man that Sydney turns to.
An All-Australian last season, Papley has been searching for his consistently high standards since returning from injury in round seven, but kicked a critical major shortly before three-quarter time last week to help spearhead the remarkable victory over the Tigers.
"I had nine weeks off. AFL’s not an easy game and I had quiet games in my first two back but got back into form against Carlton. Not many players can come back after eight weeks out and start dominating, perhaps only Dusty Martin can do that," he said.
"I’ve played my role most games and those more dominant games will come."
