SYDNEY coach John Longmire expects the minor premier to be back at full-strength for its first final after Isaac Heeney was a late withdrawal from the side that piled more misery on Adelaide at the SCG.
The Swans had little trouble brushing aside the Crows by 31 points even without their red-hot midfielder Heeney, building a commanding lead through the second and third terms before attention turned to getting through the rest of the game unscathed.
SWANS v CROWS Full match coverage and stats
Key defender Dane Rampe was subbed out at the last change as a precaution while gun midfielders Chad Warner and Errol Gulden spent long periods on the bench in the final term on Saturday night.
While Tom McCartin was also managed out of the clash with Adelaide, Longmire was careful not to rest too many players and is confident Heeney will benefit from an extended break ahead of facing Geelong or Greater Western Sydney in a home qualifying final.
"Heeney's got a bit of a stiff ankle that he manages all the time. My original thoughts were to play him for about 80 minutes and play him the majority forward," Longmire said.
"He's had a big workload, but he's also fit, he trains so hard and he plays such a competitive game.
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"Even if he played tonight, trying to keep him out of the action, he couldn't help but be in the action, so we made a call to pull him out. He should be fine."
The Swans expect that livewire forward Tom Papley and hard-running winger Justin McInerney will also be available for the first week of finals.
Papley has been sidelined since round 19 with an ankle injury, while McInerney has been out for a week longer due to a knee issue.
"We'll see how they go. They've still got a couple of weeks, so it's an important couple of weeks of training for them," Longmire said.
"They've done various levels of training, McInerney has done a fair bit actually.
"'Paps' has done a bit and he's due to ramp it up this week. We're hopeful that they'll be available for that first week."
Crows coach Matthew Nicks described the club’s season as "really disappointing" and went on to state that they intended to be major players in the trade market this year.
That could impact on former captain Taylor Walker’s hopes of extending his stay with the club after contract talks were put on hold until the end of the season.
The 34-year-old Walker only had four disposals but booted two goals against the Swans to finish with 29 for the season, as 201cm key forward Riley Thilthorpe looms as the Crows' focal point for the future.
"We're extremely busy at the moment, we feel we have to be. We're going to be aggressive with acquisition," Nicks said.
"It's easier said than done, but we've done a hell of a lot of work in this space.
"We are still a young group. When you look at the rest of the teams in the competition, we still sit down the bottom as far as our age and experience goes. So we're going do whatever we can to help those guys and add to that. Let's hope it's a busy off-season for us."
