Swans have Giants’ shoes to fill

There’s no Toby, no Buddy, nobody from the either side’s fan base will be allowed into the state let alone the stadium.

There’s no Toby, no Buddy, nobody from the either side’s fan base will be allowed into the state let alone the stadium, but the coaches of the Swans and Giants believe Thursday night’s match in Perth will be as competitive as they have always been.

Swans coach John Longmire admits that now when the Swans meet the Giants the tables have turned somewhat.

Speaking with GWS coach Leon Cameron ahead of Thursday’s dislocated derby, the Swans coach is fully cognisant that the team from across town is in the ascendancy.

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The Giants sit seventh on the ladder, still licking wounds from last year’s grand final loss and in most people’s reckoning will figure at the pointy part of the season, the Swans are 17th and given little chance of shaping anything much this year.

When GWS first started in the competition in 2012 its fiercest rivals were the Swans who were annoyed to have another side on its turf.

The more established club handed a series of hidings to the junior outfit in the early years. The Swans won all but one of the first nine games by a big margin, losing only when ambushed at the beginning of the 2014 season.

The Giants emerged as a serious rival to the Swans and all sides in 2016 and have now won seven of the 25 encounters, including the last three times they met.

“Leon and I have been right through this journey,” Longmire said on Tuesday. “It is fair to say the shoe is on the other foot in regards to experience and age of our list.

“We understand in a broader sense our commitment to grow the game in Sydney and NSW and I think both clubs do a good job of that. Then it is about competing really hard on the ground. We help each other off it, but we compete really hard on it. There’s a healthy rivalry.”

Cameron is also careful to show respect to the opposition.

“There’s no doubt it’s a really fierce rivalry and even last year the game we played we played at our home ground — and we were trying to secure out spot coming into the finals — and it went down to the last second and the Swans were a bit unlucky not to win that game,” he recalled.

“We got home by a couple of points, so it doesn’t matter where it is — early in the year, the middle or late — we match up well against each other, we have close games and we’re two teams in one town with both wanting to win over each other.

“We know we are going to have a huge challenge on Thursday. This year is so unpredictable, sometimes you don’t know what’s happening tomorrow and this game on Thursday is going to be a good game, things are going to happen in it like what happen in true derbies.”

Longmire said that Buddy Franklin and Josh Kennedy, who are travelling with the team but injured, are in the club’s plans for future matches.

Cameron indicated that Toby Greene is close to returning but will be held back and Phil Davis was in a similar position.

Callan Ward, meanwhile, has been dealing with a death threat from an Essendon fan after the last match.

“He’s been fine, he’s got some challenges, he’s got a new born and Ruby and Romeo are left back in Sydney so he has got some challenges with a new family,” Cameron said.

“Last week was difficult and disappointing, we know that every thing is going to be analysed in a game of footy, coaches analyse better than anyone … it is just disappointing when it becomes in social media personal attacks on players.

“It’s been interesting watching the week as a number of other players have come out and talked about that and how disturbing it can be.

“I think Callan’s main message was, which I think was fantastic, that him being at 30 he can deal with it but maybe a 19 or a 20-year-old who happens to read social media may not be able to deal with it.

“I understand there’s lots of challenges out there and Cal’s had a really good week, but I think he was really identifying that people have got to be really careful because you don’t know who you could tip over the edge.”