The game will be the last for Leo Barry, Michael O’Loughlin and Jared Crouch and Bolton says the hype surrounding their retirements has been more of a motivation than a distraction.
“I don’t think it’s been a distraction because one of the dangers is that we’re not playing finals so guys can probably drift off a little bit, but because we’ve got something to focus on we’ve got a real good reason to win tomorrow night, more so than a normal game.
“I think it’s been a good focus for the guys and it’s one that we’ve certainly spoken about a lot and the guys feel pretty strongly about,” Bolton said.
The Swans aren’t the only team who has something to play for on Saturday night, with a win for the Lions handing them a home semi-final next weekend.
“The stakes are pretty high and while we’re not playing for contention in the finals we’ve got a huge amount riding on this game. I can’t remember a bigger build up to a game where finals aren’t an issue.
“The level of respect we hold for the three guys who are retiring is so great that it’s a must-win game for us… I think this is one that the boys really want to perform well in and give the appropriate send off,” Bolton said.
Brisbane Lions onballer Luke Power knows that his team has a tough ask on Saturday night but says they want to go into finals with some form behind them.
“(There’s) no doubt they’ve had a massive build up, they’ve got three of their great players retiring… while we wish them all the best we don’t wish them all the best on Saturday night. We’ve got a home semi on the line and we’ve got a lot of incentive too,” Power said.
The Swans face the challenge of containing Jonathan Brown on Saturday night, who has kicked 75 goals so far this season, including a four-goal haul against the Swans in round three.
“There’s a few guys I think we could play on Browny, he’s obviously had another terrific season so it’ll be a big focus for us no doubt to try and stop him,” Bolton said.
The Lions will be missing Daniel Bradshaw, Daniel Merrett and Jed Adcock for Saturday night’s game. Despite this, Bolton knows the Swans are in for a tough match against one of their biggest rivals.
“We’ve had a big history the last six or seven years against Brisbane. They were the dominant side and then we went through a pretty good era and now we’re both probably in redevelopment stages, so we’ve had some good battles along the time and I’m sure tomorrow night shapes as another big one,” he said.
