The Swans head into Saturday night’s clash against Collingwood with a 5-6 record and Kirk said the game would have a major bearing on his side’s finals hopes.
“The next two weeks are going to really kickstart our season or it’s going to go the other way,” he said after training at Lakeside Oval on Monday.
“It’s going to shape how we go for the rest of the year and it’s going to show who really wants it bad enough over the next couple of weeks.
“The two top teams [St Kilda and Geelong] have shown they’re the two top teams for a reason – they haven’t lost a game. It will really start to show over the next three or four weeks how the eight will shape up.”
With the club’s season on the line in the next fortnight, Kirk called on several of his teammates to lift.
“When the Swans are up and going and we’re at our best, we’ve got everyone contributing. It’s been too inconsistent, left to too few and hopefully we can turn that around,” he said.
“We really want our middle-tier guys to step up. They’ve probably been fluctuating a little bit, so an even contribution from the team will definitely kickstart the second half of the year.”
The Swans have lost their past six games against the Magpies but they will head into this weekend’s game with some inside information, courtesy of recruit Rhyce Shaw.
The former Collingwood speedster has been a strong contributor for his new side and the Swans will hope his influence extends to pre-game planning this week.
“There’s no doubt Rhyce brings a lot of tactical experience and knowledge from playing with Collingwood,” Kirk said.
“He’ll give us a bit of an insight on how they approach the game and how they approach playing the Swans because we have had problems playing them in the last six years. I think it will be invaluable.
“We’re going to sit down this afternoon and really look at our game plan and Collingwood’s game plan and see how we can break it down.”
