The second game on Sunday for AFL Round 21 is between Sydney Swans and St Kilda Saints. The opening bounce is set to commence at 3:20pm with the game to be played at SCG. The favourite for the match is home team Sydney Swans. View our preview and teams for the game between Sydney Swans and St Kilda Saints.

Round: Round 21 3:20 PM August 18, 2013
Stadium: SCG
Weather: 22° Partly cloudy.

Featured Bookmakers:

Sydney Swans $1.02 vs St Kilda Saints $14.00 at Sportsbet Australia get a $250 FREE BET on this match

Sydney Swans $1.01 vs St Kilda Saints $16.00 at Luxbet Australia get a $500 FREE BET on this match

Odds Comparison by AFL Odds:

Sydney Swans	1.02	1.02	1.01	1.02	1.02	1.02
St Kilda Saints	14.00	14.00	16.00	14.00	14.00	14.00

Preview:

Third placed Sydney host St. Kilda who sit lowly in sixteenth spot on the ladder.

Sydney’s old nemesis Collingwood, were back to their old tricks last week and registered a strong 29 point win over Sydney.

Aside from their win over Richmond in round 18, it was only the first time in the past seven rounds that Sydney had come up against a team inside the eight and with their remaining games to be against Geelong and Hawthorn, last week’s game would have served as a wake up call as to what is going to be required heading into September.

St. Kilda fell to their fifth straight loss last week with a 46 point defeat at the hands of Hawthorn.

It’s been a woeful season for the Saints who have only posted three wins, more than only Melbourne and GWS.

Whilst is hard, near impossible to envisage anything other than a Swans win here, the points start handed to Saint Kilda of 59.5, once compared to the recent history between the two sides, does seem a little generous.

The Swans, who have won four of their past five against St. Kilda, have never done so by more than 29 points and it was only 16 points that separated the two sides back in round 5 of this year.

Sydney will win and as mentioned above, last week’s loss will have sharpened them up considerably but fancy the Saints with a 10 goal start, might be able to hold Sydney under the line.

Teams:

Sydney Swans:
B: D.Rampe H.Grundy N.Smith
HB: R.Shaw T.Richards A.Everitt
C: J.McVeigh R.O’Keefe N.Malceski
HF: D.Hannebery J.White L.Parker
F: M.Pyke K.Tippett J.Bolton
FOLL: S.Mumford J.Kennedy K.Jack
I/C (from): C.Bird H.Cunningham B.Jack J.Lamb B.McGlynn T.Mitchell G.Rohan
In: Jed Lamb, Gary Rohan, Harry Cunningham
Out: Nil

St Kilda Saints:
B: J.Newnes J.Blake S.Dempster
HB: J.Geary D.Roberton F.Ray
C: A.Schneider N.Dal Santo L.Montagna
HF: D.Armitage N.Riewoldt C.Jones
F: T.Curren T.Lee S.Milne
FOLL: B.McEvoy J.Saunders J.Steven
I/C (from): T.Hickey S.Ross S.Gilbert J.Webster B.Murdoch C.Shenton D.Minchington
IN: Tom Hickey, Cameron Shenton, Sebastian Ross, Sam Gilbert, Stephen Milne
OUT: James Gwilt (rested), Lenny Hayes (soreness)

Swan forward Reid set to return next week

Key forward Sam Reid appears to be leading the race to return among AFL club Sydney’s star-studded injury list.

Reid (quad), Lewis Jetta (shin), Adam Goodes (knee), and Lewis Roberts-Thomson (knee) are all battling to be passed fit and play for the Swans before the finals.

Reid looked sharp while running laps at the Swans’ SCG training session on Wednesday.

Fellow young gun Luke Parker confirmed Reid was likely to return following the side’s clash with St Kilda at the SCG on Sunday.

“Reidy will be playing next week I think,” Parker told AAP.

“I don’t know if he has the golden ticket though, he might have to come back through the reserves.

“Hopefully all those boys can get back to full fitness before the end of the season, because they’d be in our best 22 and can play some really good footy.”

Reid has played just one game in the past 11 weeks, having re-injured his quad against Melbourne in round 15 after first tearing the muscle in round 9 against Collingwood.

Swans physiotherapist Matt Cameron confirmed Reid was well on the road to recovery.

“All four of those guys are running and they’re already racing each other to see who can be first back,” Cameron told the club website.

“They are really starting to kick along now.

“Jetta and Reid are running quite quickly at the moment.

“Goodes and LRT are running at a Fartlek speed – which is a jogging and fast running combination.

“They are certainly up and going and we’re going to have them close to training next week.”

The reigning premiers face a difficult run to the finals, with the Saints followed by matches against top-two sides Geelong (away) and Hawthorn (home).

Parker said his teammates were desperate to return to form after having their colours lowered by Collingwood in a 29-point loss at ANZ Stadium.

“The boys just want to come out this week and get back to the type of footy that we want to play, and we know we can play,” Parker said.