JOHN Longmire says the Sydney Swans are desperate to show last week's loss to Richmond was an aberration when they face St Kilda at ANZ Stadium this Sunday.

Longmire admits it has been "pretty hard to forget" last week's meek 43-point defeat to the Tigers, which has left the Swans clinging to eighth place on the AFL ladder.

But he is hopeful his charges have learned from it, moved on and prepared themselves to take on the Saints.

"We're in a situation where we can still control our own destiny and that's what we've got to do this week," Longmire told reporters before training at a wet SCG on Friday.

"[St Kilda is] in good form, winning six of the last seven and only being beaten by Collingwood last week.

"We're pretty hungry after our last loss too, so we have to make sure we really match their intensity and hopefully give a bit more as well.

"To come off a pretty consistent effort against Essendon and a good win against the Bulldogs before that, to then serve up what we did last week, we were extremely disappointed with that.

"Whilst we've spoken about it all week, the real test comes on Sunday to make sure we go out and put it into action."

Clashes between the Swans and Saints are typically close, intense affairs, although the two sides haven't faced each other since round one last year, when St Kilda prevailed by eight points.

Longmire says the midfield battle will be the key to the contest.

"You look at St Kilda's midfield, whether that's [Nick] Dal Santo, [Leigh] Montagna, [Brendon] Goddard, they've got some elite players running through that area of the ground.

"And they've brought in some depth there as well with [Dean] Polo and a few other different types like [Brett] Peake.

"Quite often games are won or lost in the midfield and that's where we were pretty poor last week and have to improve this week."

Longmire is looking for his players to make a fast start and also hopes for a better conversion rate when kicking for goal.

The Swans have kicked more goals than behinds just seven times from their 19 games so far in 2011.

"It's been one of our biggest issues throughout the year, our conversion," Longmire said.

"Leigh Matthews talks about it a lot, he says often you can talk about different statistics in games - hard-ball, loose-ball gets, clearances, whatever you like - but one of the most basic statistics in the game is the ability to kick a goal.

"We haven't been good at that all year and we keep working at it, but we still have to get better at it."

The Swans also don't have a great recent record at the Olympic stadium at Homebush, winning just two of their past eight games at the venue.

But it is of little concern to Longmire.

"We got within six points of Collingwood out there in a pretty tight game [in round 14] and we had a really good win against Essendon [in round two] there this year," he said.

"I don't think weather, ground conditions or where it's at really matters, we just have to make sure we bring our intensity this week and we're hard at it."

The views in this article are those of the author and not necessarily of the AFL or the clubs