Immediately after the extraordinary win over Geelong at Skilled Stadium, the players’ minds turned to their all-important clash against the Lions at the SCG  this Saturday afternoon.

Swans midfielder Kieren Jack believes the Swans stunning 13-point win over Geelong at Skilled Stadium on Saturday is just the shot of confidence the team needs heading towards the pointy end of the AFL season.

While the team believed their best football was good enough to challenge the top sides in the competition, until Saturday’s victory against the Cats the Swans had gone close, but had not been able to pull off a win against a top four ranked opponent. 

Jack says the challenge is to take that confidence forward and perform at the highest level week-in, week-out, starting with next Saturday afternoon’s clash against the Brisbane Lions at the SCG.

“This week against the Lions is really important. We spoke about it after Saturday’s game. Against Collingwood a few weeks ago we put in a good effort and then turned up against Adelaide the week after and put in a really poor effort, so we want to make sure we don’t do that again this week,” Jack said. 

“It’s the last game of the year for Brisbane so they’ll have nothing to lose, so it’s important we keep our confidence going and hit the finals in really good form,” he said. 

Following Saturday’s win, coach John Longmire praised the team for following co-captain Jarrad McVeigh’s lead from the Swans previous weeks clash with the St Kilda.

After enduring a challenging week, Longmire urged the Swans to focus on the moment, exactly how McVeigh had done in his standout performance against the Saints.

Speaking at Sunday’s recovery session, Jack said the team owed a strong showing against the Cats to their ‘brother’ McVeigh. 

“We knew he was watching the game. it was such a tragedy during the week. He is one of our brothers, he is our skipper.

“It was a shame he couldn’t be out there but we had to do it for him. He sent a couple of texts out to all the boys before the game and after the game just saying how proud he was.

“It was a great win and he was just proud of the way that all of the boys stood up in such a tough game,” Jack said.  

It looks likely that the Swans will face St Kilda in the first week of the finals after both teams had important wins on the weekend. The major outstanding point at this time is where the game will be played. It looks like the following needs to take place for the Swans to secure a home final:

The Swans need to beat the Brisbane Lions and need St Kilda to lose to Carlton
OR
If both the Swans and St Kilda win, the Swans winning margin needs to be approximately 100 points great than St Kilda.

The match will mark the Swans return to the SCG for the first time since the Round 18 clash with the Western Bulldogs, and will be played at the twilight timeslot of 4pm.

Watch the Sydney Swans tune-up for the finals in this Saturday’s twilight match against the Brisbane Lions at the SCG. The Swans last faced the Lions in round 11 when they walked away from the Gabba with a 65-point win. Tickets to Saturday’s match - starting at 4.10pm - can be purchased by clicking here.