Sydney coach John Longmire is upbeat about Kurt Tippett’s availability for round one of the AFL regular season, despite his new leg injury.

Tippett will sit out their three NAB Challenge matches after he suffered an injury to his right tibia-fibula joint during last Friday’s intraclub game.

It means the Swans will be without their powerful tall forward duo for Friday night’s NAB Challenge match against Brisbane in Coffs Harbour.

Lance Franklin is also out of the team because of a sore right knee.

While Tippett is out of action for the NAB Challenge, Longmire said he could prove his fitness the week before the season starts in early April.

“There may be an opportunity for him to play some game time then,” Longmire said.

“He can still run from next week and do a lot of the conditioning work, it’s just the competitive work he’ll be missing out on over the next couple of weeks.”

Adam Goodes, Ted Richards and Jarrad McVeigh also will not play in an understrength Sydney team against Brisbane.

But the Swans will audition youngsters such as Isaac Heeney, Jack Hiscox and Toby Nankervis.

Former Collingwood star Dayne Beams will play for the Lions.

“They’ve recruited extremely well … established, senior, quality AFL players – top liners,” Longmire said of Brisbane.

“They’ve had the benefit of (putting) 12 months of experience into their younger kids.

“They’re quality young kids.

“They’re pretty positive about their future and as they should be.”

Longmire will also be the latest AFL senior coach to hand over match-day duties to his assistants during the pre-season.

Stewart Dew will be in charge against the Lions.

“We always challenge the players to keep on improving – we do the same with our coaching group,” Longmire said.

“It’s a great opportunity for those coaches to grow and learn something about the role for the entire week.

“They’ll be in charge for the week and it’s a good opportunity for myself as well to view the game from a different perspective, to observe a bit more and not be as hands-on.”

Longmire was asked if there were any lingering effects from their surprise capitulation to Hawthorn in last year’s grand final.

“We’re into 2015 now – we can’t do anything about what happened last season,” he said.

“Now it’s about 2015 and preparing as best we can – that’s what we’re focused on and that’s what we’ll try to do.”