Swans happy to have bye after vital win - Sports News - Fanatics - the world's biggest events

Swans happy to have bye after vital win

Adrian Warren 24/07/2011 01:45:49 PM Comments (0)

Sydney's leaders insist their bye is coming at a good time, despite the Swans going into the break after one of their most impressive efforts of the AFL season.

Saturday's 39-point home win over the Western Bulldogs propelled Sydney back into the top eight after St Kilda had briefly nudged them out on Friday following their emphatic victory over Adelaide.

Sydney's post-bye draw leaves their finals destiny very much in their own hands.

Geelong is the only top eight team they play in the last five rounds, with all their other opponents currently camped below them on the ladder.

Their draw also includes matches against fellow finals aspirants Essendon and St Kilda and stragglers Richmond and Brisbane.

Sydney coach John Longmire was looking forward to regaining the services of injured youngster Gary Rohan, Canadian big man Mike Pyke and impressive rookie Jed Lamb.

He said he believed the bye was coming at a good time despite declaring the performance against the Bulldogs as one of the Swans' best for the year.

"Sam Reid, Alex Johnson, Luke Parker, Daniel Hannebery, a lot of our younger kids have played a lot of footy this year and in pretty big roles for us," Longmire said.

"They will enjoy having a little break and our senior players as well.

"We get a number of players back hopefully in our reserves after the bye which is really pleasing.

"Hopefully in the back five games we can get some more players playing in our reserves and get our depth back a bit more and really put some pressure on for spots."

Sydney co-captain Adam Goodes, who tallied a career-best 34 possessions against the Bulldogs, was equally convinced the bye was well timed, despite rating Saturday's win as their best four-quarter performance of the current campaign.

"I think at the start of the year when we were in form and we had the bye, we probably wanted to keep playing back then," Goodes said.

"But we knew (this week) that to come off a six-day break, we knew the bye was coming, I think we put a little bit extra effort in this week to make sure we got the job done, knowing that we get a pretty good rest."

Goodes was looking forward to the short break.

"I can't even tell you who we're playing next game to be honest, I'm really going to switch off," he said.

"We've got four days off to get away, have a break and then come back really switched on and really energised for the second half of the year and really help drive the group to hopefully the finals."

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