Sydney Swans coach Paul Roos has challenged the Swans to improve their ball use in Saturday's AFL blockbuster with Collingwood in a bid to snap forward Barry Hall out of a form slump.
The recall of hard-working midfielder Luke Ablett from a hamstring injury in place of injured halfback Tadhg Kennelly will also help the Swans cause according to Roos.
"Just in terms of our midfield, you like different players in a different mix," Roos said at Telstra Stadium.
"With Kirky (Brett Kirk), Jude (Bolton), Benny Mathews, they are really hard, in-and-under players, which we need and we like.
"But they can get complemented by Luke Ablett and Adam Goodes.
"Our inside midfielders are better when Lukey Ablett and Goodesy and the Nick Malceski-type guys are playing well, and vice-versa.
"With Lukey back in, it just gives us a little bit of a different look."
Co-captain Hall has kicked just 22 goals in the first half of the season.
The burly forward this week laughed off suggestions he might be better off picking up the reported millions of dollars on offer for returning to his boyhood pursuit of boxing.
With a crowd of at least 60,000 expected, the Swans can leap from 10th to fourth on the AFL ladder with a win over fifth-placed Collingwood at Telstra Stadium.
Roos says hitting the leading Hall on the chest will go a long way to solving the Swans' problems, in a season which has yielded only six wins from 11 games.
"The one area we probably all think as a coaching group we need to get better at is just our ball use and giving Hally an opportunity, not putting them on his shoelaces or giving him half-volleys," Roos said.
"Half-volleys are good for grass at Wimbledon but they are not too good for AFL players."
Roos said the Swans opted for a one-hour skills session last Friday, with no tackling, before having a bye last weekend.
Another skills session on Tuesday has boosted the coach's confidence that his focus on ball use will pay dividends against the Magpies.
"A lot of our mistakes have been, you want to be hitting your forwards (with accurate passes) when there is no pressure," he said.
But while the Swans midfielders are under pressure to give better service to their forwards, Roos is also demanding Hall give his defenders the run-around.
Roos said he had always expected that this season's controversial hands-in-the-back rule would adversely affect forwards, who often rely on leading their opponent under the ball then backing back towards goal.
Hall needs to go back to the future to find a way out, Roos says.
"When Hally plays his best football he is generally coming at the football, moving and leading and our guys are hitting him on the lead," Roos said.
"It (the rule) shouldn't really worry us at the back end of the season if we are playing the way we want to play."
Centre half-back Lewis Roberts-Thomson, who has not played a senior game this season because of a foot injury, is expected to play a full game in the reserves this weekend, Roos said.
"You are aware that he is in your best 22 and you are always talking about those guys when they are ready to play," Roos said of his 2005 premiership defender.
"But you want to make sure you give your players the best chance to play well.
"I don't think you would do Lewis justice if he came out here and played poorly, it would be as much our fault as it would Lewi's."
Collingwood have named Irish teenager Marty Clarke to make his AFL debut and regained midfielder Paul Licuria from injury. The Magpies have recalled Guy Richards and Shannon Cox.
Defender Harry O'Brien is out with a shoulder injury.
ROUND 12
SYDNEY SWANS vs. COLLINGWOOD
Saturday, 7.15pm – Telstra Stadium
SYDNEY SWANS
B: Richards, Barry, Dempster
HB: Schneider, C.Bolton, Mathews
C: Ablett, Kirk, Malceski
HF: R.O'Keefe, O'Loughlin, J.Bolton
F: Davis, Hall, Buchanan
FOLL: Everitt, Goodes, Fosdike
I/C: Bevan, Jolly, McVeigh, Schmidt
EMER: Grundy, Laidlaw, Thornton
IN: Ablett
OUT: Kennelly (knee)
COLLINGWOOD
B: Lockyer, Wakelin, Maxwell
HB: Shaw, Cox, Stanley
C: Pendlebury, Licuria, Johnson
HF: Holland, Cloke, Didak
F: Swan, Rocca, Fraser
FOLL: Richards, O’Bree, Burns
I/C: Thomas, Goldsack, Davis, Clarke
EMER: Medhurst, Iles, Cook
IN: Licuria, Richards, Cox, Clarke
OUT: O’Brien (injured), Bryan, Medhurst, Toovey (omitted)
NEW: Marty Clarke, 19. 2007 Rookie Draft. Recruited from County Down, Ireland.
