Sydney Swans v St Kilda
Saturday, August 7. 7:40pm
Marvel Stadium
INS: Dylan Stephens
OUTS: James Bell (omitted)
The Sydney Swans side to face St Kilda at Marvel Stadium on Saturday, August 7 in Round 21 has been named with Dylan Stephens returning to the side in place of James Bell (omitted).
Sydney enter the clash with five consecutive victories, after a 9-point victory over Essendon last week, and senior coach John Longmire will once again be looking for the side to continue playing consistent football.
"We have been able to find a way, no matter what has been thrown at us and that's been really pleasing," Longmire said.
"We have had some really good quarters of footy in that and have ad some areas we need to improve still, but overall, it has been a really good block and we need to try keep going as much as we can.
"We play St Kilda this week and we need to keep that up."
"We are making sure we concentrate on what we do and play to our strengths, but also don't allow St Kilda to play to their strengths," Longmire added.
"They are a team that can really kick goals in a hurry, they have some great forward targets and a midfield who can really run forward hard and we need to be mindful of that."
The Swans line up has remained consistent over the last few weeks and with Stephens the only change this week, Longmire remained confident that he would come back in and play his role, noting the strong squad mentality.
"Last week our reserves went well and we are really confident in a number of those boys that are playing in the next level down, whether they have been playing there for a few weeks or are coming back from injury, we are really confident they can come back in and play a role for us"
"We need to be in good form right across the board. We have talked about the squad mentality and that's what we need."
The clash is the sixth annual Pride Game and was originally scheduled to be played on Sunday afternoon but was rescheduled earlier this week. The sixth Pride Game will be played without a crowd and will be live on Fox Footy, Kayo Sports and 7Mate in NSW.
Sydney Swans vs St Kilda, Round 21 at Marvel Stadium
The Sydney Swans will wear their inaugural Pride guernsey in Saturday night's match. It is the first time the club will wear a specially designed Pride guernsey for the game, which has been an annual fixture on the AFL calendar between Sydney and St.Kilda since 2016.
The Sydney Swans will also wear rainbow socks with the Pride guernsey. The 2021 Pride guernsey and range is available at the Swanshop here.
HSBC is the official Pride Game partner of the Sydney Swans.
