Sydney ruckman Mark Seaby will come into calculations for a recall against Fremantle, but Swans coach John Longmire believes even two specialist big men may not quell the influence of Dockers’ giant Aaron Sandilands.
Shane Mumford will lead Sydney’s big man division at the SCG on Saturday, with former West Coast premiership player Seaby pressing for promotion after some strong early season showings in the Swans’ reserves.
Versatile Lewis Roberts-Thomson, who is scheduled to play his 150th senior game this week, was backup to Mumford in the opening round win over GWS.
Longmire said the Swans would certainly consider Seaby, who at 199cms is five centimetres taller than Roberts-Thomson, but still 12cm smaller than Sandilands.
“It’s been good to have Mark Seaby in really good form in our reserves for the last few weeks, he’s been going pretty well,” Longmire said.
“Jesse White played pretty well on the weekend, kicked three, so we’ve got a bit of flexibility there to come into the team.
“Certainly Sandilands on the weekend, his first quarter was really impressive.
“He was obviously such a massive presence on the ground and he was in pretty good touch after missing three weeks.
“Sandilands is one that you need to have a bit of a real think about because you can sometimes play two ruckmen against him and you’re not going to get the tap outs anyway.
“Seaby is certainly experienced and we know ‘Mummy’ (Mumford) at his best is a really good player as well.”
Longmire is looking for Sydney to better their mediocre 2011 home record, which was tainted by five defeats.
Competition heavyweights Geelong, Hawthorn and Carlton won at the SCG, along with Fremantle, while Collingwood triumphed at ANZ Stadium.
He regarded Fremantle as one of the top teams in this year’s competition and a good first up challenge at home.
“They’ve got some super players in their lineup, so it is a good test for us and it’s a good test for us on our home ground – something that we’d like to better our record than what we had last year,” Longmire said.
Longmire stressed the need for Sydney to keep getting better after describing round one as outstanding across the board.
“What does stick out is that every team in the competition is really improving across all aspects and that really jumped out to me over the weekend,” Longmire said.
“It was a magnificent round of football and we need to make sure we are improving at the same rate if not better than our opponents.”
Longmire will wait until Thursday before making a call on the fitness of veterans Ryan O’Keefe and Rhyce Shaw, who both missed the opening round game.
