Leading ruck-midfield combination, Shane Mumford and Josh Kennedy, are set to return to competitive football after being named in the Swans 29-man squad for Saturday night’s NAB Cup match against North Melbourne.
After being a week short in their preparations for last week’s opening games, the key midfield pair will re-unite in the centre of western Sydney’s Bruce Purser Reserve and look to continue where their uncanny understanding left off at the end of last season.
Following impressive debut seasons with the Swans in 2010, which saw them both finish in the top-three of Club Champion voting, the duo improved their games even further in 2011. Kennedy led the league in both clearances and average contested possessions, feeding off Mumford’s highest hit-out to advantage average of all the competition's ruckmen.
Gary Rohan, another key component in the Swans run to last year’s semi final, is also in line for his first pre-season game after being named in Saturday night’s squad, as is premiership player Lewis Roberts-Thomson.
Andrejs Everitt, Campbell Heath and Jed Lamb round out the list of players included in this week’s squad who didn’t play at Etihad Stadium last Friday night.
Adam Goodes, who accepted a one-game ban from the Match Review Panel this week, and Ryan O'Keefe, who suffered a knee injury at training on Tuesday, will both miss Saturday night’s game.
The 29-man squad can be found below, with full details on Saturday night able to be found here.
NAB Cup Round 2
Sydney Swans v North Melbourne
Saturday March 3, 2012
7pm
Bruce Purser Reserve, Rouse Hill
1 SEABY Mark
3 McVEIGH Jarrad
9 MALCESKI Nick
10 MORTON Mitch
11 LAMB Jed
12 KENNEDY Josh
13 EVERITT Andrejs
14 BIRD Craig
15 JACK Kieren
16 ROHAN Gary
17 WALSH Tommy
18 WHITE Jesse
20 REID Sam
21 McGLYNN Ben
24 BOLTON Jude
25 RICHARDS Ted
26 PARKER Luke
29 MATTNER Martin
30 ROBERTS-THOMSON Lewis
32 JETTA Lewis
33 MOORE Jarred
34 JOHNSON Alex
35 HEATH Campbell
38 PYKE Michael
39 GRUNDY Heath
40 SMITH Nick
41 MUMFORD Shane
44 CUNNINGHAM Harry
45 GORDON Nathan
