Senior coach John Longmire says the next 12 days will be pivotal as the Swans lay down the final foundations for the season opener against Melbourne on March 27 at the MCG.

Longmire was pleased with the pressure applied by the Swans in the 31-point defeat of St Kilda on Saturday night, and he wants to see that repeated when the main game starts.

“The pressure was at a really good level for most of the night and our challenge now is to convert that into a game where there is four points on the line,’’ Longmire said.

“Over the next two weeks we’ve got to make sure we continue to work on our contested ball and our work rate without the ball, that is really important.’’

He said the players learned a big lesson when they suffered a 73-point defeat at the hands of Melbourne in round 17 last season and he wants that to be in their minds ahead of round one.

“If you look at our result last year against Melbourne it wasn’t anywhere near good enough. Our mindset wasn’t where it should have been going into the game and Melbourne are obviously fielding a very talented list and have got some young superstars running around in their team.’’

The Swans fielded 23 players on Saturday night, compared to St Kilda’s 25, as Longmire tried in part to simulate the new interchange rules.

Mark Seaby and Jesse White shared the ruck duties with Shane Mumford, and both Seaby and White spent a significant portion of the game in the forward line.

“Teams are going to have to have their second ruckman as a forward/ruckman rather than ruckman/forward, with the other ruckman spending most of the time on the ball,’’ Longmire said.

“Either that, or you’ll have both ruckmen sharing it 50 - 50 and in that case both of them are going to have to play in attack and contribute and be a genuine forward.’’

Longmire thought Seaby, who kicked a goal, and White played their roles.

“Seabs made a contest and brought the ball to ground for our crumbers, both he and Jesse did that pretty well.’’

At the end of the NAB Challenge series Longmire says he has got what he wanted out of it.

“We were really fortunate to play last year’s grand finalists in Collingwood and St Kilda during the series, to play two quality teams.

“For three quarters against Collingwood we were pretty good and the majority of the game against St Kilda.

“The players have started to implement some of the things we’ve been doing over summer and we’ve got some good game time into the majority of the players who will play round one,’’ he said.

Lewis Jetta was a standout against St Kilda kicking three goals, and Longmire said it showed how valuable he can be.

“Jetta was good, he played wing and half forward and it was good to see him finish his work and kick goals.

“He did some long runs and when he is able to run 20m and kick it 50m he can really break the lines so that is important,’’ he said.

Andrejs Everitt, who came to the Club in a trade from the Western Bulldogs last year, played his best game so far in red and white, running off the half back line and picking up 27 possessions.

“His confidence has been growing every week and we want that to keep going. It looks as if he’s more comfortable in our back six, we like his versatility and he has an important role there.’’

The Swans Reserves will play a practice game against Sydney team the East Coast Eagles at 10am this Saturday, at Lakeside Oval opposite the SCG.