Swans coach John Longmire said he has been impressed with young forward Sam Reid’s intensity on the training track this week.
The 20-year-old had been suffering from ‘a few niggles’ over the past fortnight, but Longmire said Reid has returned to full training ahead of Saturday’s match against Richmond.
“(Sam) has been really good this week,” he said.
“He was able to fully train last Thursday for the first time in a couple of weeks.
“(Before that) he’d been able to do little bits of training, which was enough to get him through to the game and we were able to tick him off and say that he’s right.
“Last week he trained fully, he pulled up really well from the game, he did the whole session on Tuesday and looked really good and you can see him start to feel better about himself because he’s out here actually doing the full session.”
Longmire said Reid’s reduction in training over the past few weeks was not unusual for a young player who regularly plays such a demanding role on field.
“He just had a sore ankle and a sore shoulder and a couple of little niggles that happen when you play centre-half-forward and you’re 20 years of age,” he said.
“That’s just the reality of it, and we have a number of players, and I’m sure other teams have a number of players who over a period of two or three weeks are on limited training preparation.
“It’s not unusual, you just need to assess each player as to whether they are right to play and whether they are able to contribute.
“We’re confident with Sam that (because) he was able to train last week and this week, that he will be fine. “
Longmire said the decision about who will come into this week’s side against Richmond to replace injured co-captain Adam Goodes will be determined following the team’s final training session today.
Among those in contention is forward/ruck option Jesse White, who played a leading role in the reserves side last week.
“(Jesse White) was probably one a couple of weeks ago who was a bit unlucky to be left out of the team when he was going OK for us,” Longmire said.
“We’d still like him to improve - that’s his challenge, and we still think he’s got more improvement in him.
“He played a fair bit on the weekend in the ruck and also a little bit forward and played a good, solid four-quarter game as well.”
Longmire also highlighted the improvement of tall-forward Tommy Walsh.
“We’ve been monitoring Tommy Walsh’s form and he’s been going really well.
“He’s been able to be pretty consistent over the last month in particular.”
Selections aside, Longmire said his team will have to produce a vast improvement on last year’s effort against the Tigers in Melbourne, where the Swans went down by seven goals.
“If you looked at what we served up last year down there it wouldn’t have mattered where we played, we would have gotten beaten pretty comprehensively because we played pretty poorly,” he said.
“It was evident in the first five or six minutes in the game that we weren’t putting enough pressure on, so whether it’s the MCG or whether it’s Aurora a couple of weeks ago or it’s the SCG, it doesn’t matter in regards to bringing our best game.
“We’ve just got to make sure we bring our pressure and intent, because when we get it right we play our best footy."
