Lance Franklin has been cleared to return in a huge boost for Sydney as they prepare to face high-flying Collingwood in a massive Friday night AFL scrap at the SCG.
The Magpies have won six in a row to sit second on the ladder, four points behind Geelong.
But the Swans’ chances of causing an upset have been boosted by news that Franklin has recovered from a hamstring injury that has seen him miss the past four weeks.
Coach John Longmire said Franklin proved his fitness at training on Wednesday.
“He did the whole session and looked good. He is back in the team and it is great to have him back,” Longmire said.
Collingwood have been buffeted by a number of injury issues and both sides will be without a number of stars.
There was no sign of forward Jordan de Goey at Melbourne Airport on Thursday, though Pies’ coach Nathan Buckley on Wednesday declared him fit to play after missing last week’s game with a shin injury.
Even with the return of Franklin, Sydney are set to field another youthful line-up.
After occupying last spot with a 1-6 record, the Swans have grafted out successive five-point wins over Essendon and North Melbourne to climb four places.
Sydney, who haven’t scored more than 93 points in a game this season, can’t afford to get into a shootout with a Collingwood side who have topped 100 in four of their last five matches.
Instead, the Swans will try to hustle a more experienced and potent Pies side out of their rhythm.
“The approach is not to let them get too much free ball going forward because they have those dangerous small forwards that like to spread the ground and use their legs to get back to goal,” in-form Swans’ utility Jordan Dawson told AAP.
”Getting over the top of them in contested ball, that’s what we’re focusing on.
“Just trying to limit the way they want to play because they are pretty dangerous when they get it on their terms.
“We know that we can take it up to them and it feels like we’re hitting our straps a little bit as a team.”
Collingwood have lost the clearances three out of the last four weeks, but Buckley pointed out his side were still scoring well from that area, while defending well from the ball they lost.
“‘We do want to continue to work at maximising (ruckman) Brodie (Grundy’s) ruck contest and dominance,” he said.
“Sides have got strategies around congesting clearance and we’re dealing with that a lot better than we were earlier in the year, or late last year.”