SYDNEY will be hoping the unpredictable element of its inaugural squad can help deliver an emotional debut AFLW win when it takes on St Kilda at North Sydney Oval on Saturday.
The Swans are one of four new clubs featuring in season seven of the competition and they are hopeful that the unknown aspect of their team will help deliver a win in their first appearance against a Saints side that finished second bottom last season.
"One of the special things is that they can't really do their homework on us. They can do it on individual players, but no-one knows how we'll come out and play as a team. I think we'll be a bit of a surprise packet," said Swans co-captain Lauren Szigeti.
"It might be a bit chaotic but that's because we'll come out with as much pressure as we can. That doesn't take skill to do it's just going out with as much effort and intensity as we can."
Szigeti has been named co-captain for the Swans' inaugural season along with midfielders Maddy Collier and Brooke Lochland and will have to juggle those leadership responsibilities while trying to harness the excitement of her first AFLW game.
Szigeti has signed on in Sydney from Hawthorn's VFL side and is the youngest member of the leadership group.
"It's going to be a big night for me. I'm just focusing on the fact that it is my first game and take time to take it in and think about how special it is for me," she said.
"There's been a lot of hard work going in to running out for my first game and on the captain's side of it I got selected as captain for a reason, so I just need to keep doing what I've been doing.
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"It's definitely going to be a quicker game to what I'm used to in the VFL but I've played against a lot of the girls on my journey and I've been watching closely and feel ready to take that next step."
While Szigeti has moved to Sydney from Victoria, a select few in the Swans squad that hail from New South Wales will get to pull on the colours of the team they've supported their whole life.
"It's super special for the girls like Lexi and Cynthia Hamilton who have grown up being Swans supporters, you can see how much it means to them and how passionate they are about the club," Szigeti said.
"It's almost to the point of being a bit emotional for them when they run out in the red and white for the first time just as it will be for the rest of us as well."
You won't find too many tipping the Swans to get near a finals berth in their first season and Szigeti is only concerned with the small gains at the moment under coach Scott Gowans.
"We've got high expectations, we want to be successful but I think the biggest goal for us is to just get some games under our belt to build that on-field connection, we've done really well off-field despite only being together for 10 weeks," she said.
