SYDNEY Swans coach John Longmire expects to have an improved Sam Reid at his disposal against Richmond on Saturday.

Reid has been well down on form in recent weeks, kicking a total of 1.4 and averaging under seven disposals and three marks in his past four games.

Restricted by minor ankle and shoulder problems, the 20-year-old had been unable to train fully, which was being reflected in his performances in games.

But Longmire said Reid has returned to full training and hopes he will soon produce his best.

"He's been really good this week," Longmire said on Thursday.

"He was able to fully train last Thursday for the first time in a couple of weeks.

"He'd been doing bits and pieces at training and enough to tick him off and say that he was right to play, but last week he pulled up really well from the game, did the whole session on Tuesday and looked really good.

"You could see him start to feel better about himself."

Longmire conceded that if the situation had continued with Reid unable to complete full training sessions, his position in the team may have come under threat, but that has not been the case.

"He just had a sore ankle and a sore shoulder and a couple of little niggles that you have when you play centre half-forward at 20 years of age," he said.

"That's just the reality of it.

"You need to assess each player and sometimes, if it gets to a point where they're not able to train over a period of three, four, five weeks and their performances do suffer, then you have to make a decision.

"But we're confident with Sam he'll be fine."

Teammate Craig Bird admitted to AFL.com.au that Reid has suffered from a dip in confidence while his body hasn't been right, but believes he will rediscover his best very soon.

"I think his confidence has been a little bit down and he's been a little bit sore, so hopefully he can get his body right," he said.

"He's got so much potential, it's only a matter of time before he puts his stamp on a game and hopefully it's soon and he can have a good game this week."

Longmire is wary of a Tigers side that he feels has improved immensely this season, particularly defensively.

The Swans also need to overcome a woeful recent record at the MCG, where they have picked up just one draw and seven losses from their last eight matches.

That includes a 43-point defeat against the Tigers in round 21 last year.

"We just haven't played our best footy there," Longmire said.

"If you look at what we served up last year down there (against Richmond), it wouldn't have mattered where we played, we would've got beaten pretty comprehensively because we played really poorly.

"It was evident very early we weren't putting enough pressure on.

"When we get it right, we play our best footy."

James Dampney covers Sydney AFL news for AFL.com.au. Follow him on Twitter: @AFL_JD

The views in this article are those of the author and not necessarily of the AFL or the clubs