Sydney Swans coach John Longmire will look to young guns Luke Parker and Craig Bird to cover the loss of veteran midfielder Jude Bolton in tomorrow night’s clash with Collingwood.
Longmire said Parker and Bird will share the load, rotating through the midfield and up forward.
“Luke Parker and Craig Bird are two players that we see as replacement types for Jude Bolton,” he said.
“They’ll share that role whether it’s in the midfield inside or at half forward, they are able to play those types of roles.
“We see those players as hopefully able to cover for Jude.”
Collingwood have enlisted a number of experienced players for tomorrow night’s match, with Alan Didak, Chris Tarrant and Marty Clarke all being recalled for the match, while 2011 Brownlow medallist Dane Swan will miss out following a club suspension.
Longmire said the Swans are looking forward to taking on last year’s Grand Finalists at near full-strength.
“You don’t often get the chance to play in the really big home and away games, and the build-up throughout this week has been terrific and certainly our supporters are getting right behind us,” he said.
“They’ve obviously brought some experience in.
“If you look at the players (Collingwood) have brought in, two in particular (Tarrant and Didak) are really experienced players who are able to play big games…so they are quality players that we’ll have to be aware of.”
Longmire added that Swans defender Nick Smith is likely to get the job on renowned goal-sneak Didak, who returns to the Collingwood senior side after two weeks in the VFL.
“Nick plays on those dangerous-type of players… and Nick has been doing those jobs well over the last few weeks,” he said.
“If he gets that job again tomorrow night then it’s not an easy one because (Didak) can turn a game in five minutes.”
The Swans made just one change ahead of tomorrow night’s clash, with utility Andrejs Everitt returning to the side in place of Bolton.
Longmire said Everitt’s versatility will be valuable in this weekend’s match.
“(Everitt) just gives us a real flexibility in the line-up that we can put him anywhere over the ground,” he said.
“To have a player like that come into your team in a number of different positions it does give you the flexibility late in the game if you need it.”
With 50,000 fans expected at ANZ Stadium tomorrow night, Longmire said the Swans are keenly anticipating this weekend’s blockbuster clash.
“To take on Collingwood who have played in the last three grand finals, including the drawn one, they’re just a super team who play finals-(like) footy every week so we expect that type of game,” he said.
“It’s going to be a really hard fought pressure game in front of a big home crowd, and our players are really looking forward to that.”
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