Sydney Swans midfielder Craig Bird says the Swans are eager to regain their home ground advantage at the SCG this Saturday night against Port Adelaide.

The Swans have lost their opening two SCG matches of the season, against Carlton and Geelong, and not since 1993 has the Club lost three matches at the SCG to start a season.

“It’s very important. I think John Longmire said before we really need to make it a fortress again the SCG,” Bird said.

“ Teams don’t usually like coming here and playing us at this ground, so hopefully we can get back to that and put in a good performance this week and for the rest of the season and don’t let teams get on top of us here at the SCG. “

Despite sitting sixteenth on the AFL Ladder, Bird said the Swans - eighth on the ladder - would not be underestimating the Power, who stretched the highly rated Hawthorn last Friday night.

“It’s going to be another tough challenge for us, we only sort of snuck over the line last week (against the Bulldogs) but hopefully we can put a four-quarter effort together this week.

“I think that was a big focus last week. I guess against Carlton and Geelong we sort of had those lapses in one or two quarters and it pretty much cost us the game.

“Last week was a lot better, apart from the start, we put together a good performance and hopefully this week we can build on it again,” Bird said.

After a strong preseason, Bird is fast gaining confidence in his troublesome foot, which restricted him to just four senior games in 2010.

He is enjoying being back on the field and relishing the defensive role he has played on some of the game’s most dangerous midfielders.

“Last year was probably one of the toughest years I’ve had since I’ve been at the Swans.

“This year has been pretty positive, I’ve been able to play five out of six games so far and the foot is holding up alright so I’m pretty pleased with how it’s going.

“I’ve played a bit different this year, a bit more of a defensive role on blokes like Marc Murphy and Andrew Embley. I’m really enjoying that at the moment, it’s a great challenge for me and with Kieren (Jack) out I guess I have to step up my game and take up his role a little bit,” Bird said.