LANCE Franklin is a confirmed starter for the Sydney Swans' important intra-club match on Wednesday, but fellow key forwards Kurt Tippett and Adam Goodes will sit it out with lingering knee issues.
Franklin has been on a limited program since he joined the Swans, due in part to his late finish to last season and a minor quad problem, but he will contest his new club's final hit-out before its first NAB Challenge game next week.
It will be a full match at Lakeside Oval officiated by an AFL umpire and will also involve important Swans Tom Mitchell and Lewis Jetta as they recover from their respective ankle and knee problems.
But most eyes will be on Franklin in another key step for the club's new signing.
"He'll be playing," Swans coach John Longmire told AFL.com.au. "He won't play the whole game, but he'll play some of the game.
"He had a run around last Friday and did some competitive work and looked OK. He's been building week on week.
"He's got an important month ahead of him now to get some game time under his belt.
"He did some contested work in a bit of a hit-out on Friday and that will continue on Wednesday.
"If he pulls up well, we'll see what his program looks like after that."
The news is not as positive for Goodes and Tippett, who have experienced minor setbacks in their recoveries from knee injuries.
Goodes, who hasn't played since injuring his knee against Port Adelaide in round 13 last year, has had to tone down his training workload.
"He's been a bit slower," Longmire said. "He was going really well until about three weeks ago and then he's just been a little bit delayed with his knee getting used to the load.
"He was ready to jump into skills and pulled up a little bit sore, so we've just backed him off a little bit and hopefully we'll run him again this Friday."
The Swans' other big men who have had limited pre-seasons, including Sam Reid, Lewis Roberts-Thomson and Mike Pyke, will all play in a promising sign just over a month before round one.
But the club is taking a cautious approach with Tippett, who injured his knee in the semi-final victory over Carlton last season and has recently experienced some tendonitis.
"He's been a bit slower too," Longmire said.
"He had a bit of tendonitis so we've just been managing his load.
"He ran today and he'll train again Friday. We were tossing up whether to play him on Wednesday or not, but we've decided to train him on Friday."
Mitchell badly tore ligaments in his ankle in the semi-final against the Blues, while Jetta had minor knee surgery last month.
Both are critical members of Longmire's team and will have a chance to stretch their mended legs on Wednesday.
"They will all get an opportunity this Wednesday to get a really good hit-out," Longmire said.
"Tommy Mitchell, Jetta, these type of players, will start to get some game time under their belt.
"Gary Rohan, Harry Cunningham has been very strong this pre-season, Sam Naismith, all those guys, plus some newer guys in Tom Derickx and Jeremy Laidler will have a run around as well.
"We expect the majority of those blokes that have been on limited pre-seasons to play 50 or 60 minutes at least."
The Swans commence their NAB Challenge against Greater Western Sydney in Canberra on Thursday, February 20.
Twitter: @AFL_JD
