SYDNEY expects Isaac Heeney to be ready to return to face Collingwood on Saturday and add more potency to a forward line that misfired in a nine-point loss to Melbourne on Saturday.
The Swans won the inside-50 count 58-46 against the Demons but weren't able to make the most of their efforts on the scoreboard against a miserly defence that has conceded the fewest points in the competition.
Superstar forward Lance Franklin was well held by Steven May, going goalless for the first time since the 2018 elimination final loss to Greater Western Sydney. It was also the first time Franklin has finished a game scoreless since round eight, 2015.
Young tall forward Hayden McLean also failed to trouble the goal umpire after kicking a career-best four goals the week before.
Heeney missed the Melbourne match with soreness in his troublesome right ankle that required surgery last season, but will be pushing for a return to play the Magpies at the SCG.
"We're hoping he can do some running tomorrow, and then look to train on Thursday. We're hoping he pulls up OK and will be available," coach John Longmire said on Monday.
"Sometimes [Heeney's ankle] gets jammed up a little bit and takes a bit longer to recover. There are times where you can feel it during a game, and it pulls up OK and it just takes him a day or two to recover. This took him a bit longer.
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"It's going to happen like that at times, so it just meant that he had the week off. It gives him, with his hand, another week to feel a bit better as well."
Longmire said missing the Demons match wasn't a sign that Heeney would face ongoing problems with the ankle that he suffered a gruesome injury to last year.
"We think it'll get better the more training and playing that he does, but it'll still have to be managed. We know that's the case," Longmire said.
"But because it has happened once doesn't mean it's going to continue to happen. We think that gradually the more work he does on it the better it'll get."
Jordan De Goey looms as a crucial opponent for the Swans, after the Magpie kicked six goals against North Melbourne last weekend and gave a strong reminder of how much impact he can have.
The 188cm forward spent much of the game positioned deep in the Magpies' forward line and again showed he's a tricky match-up for opposition defences.
"He's a very good player, a very good mark for his size," Longmire said.
"He is one of those ones that you're not quite sure, a bit like Toby Greene, that you're not quite sure the type of player that they need because if you put a key [defender] on them they go up around the stoppages and they're very good at that. And if they're one-out in the goalsquare they can out-mark you.
"So that's going to be a big part of our planning this week. We know he's a very good player, we know he's extremely talented and so we'll have a plan for him."
Dane Rampe made a successful return from surgery on a broken finger and looms as a likely match-up for De Goey.
"I think he's an ideal match-up on most [players]," Longmire said.
"I haven't found a match-up that Dane Rampe doesn't suit. He gets beaten, but it has been rarely and it has been not through lack of effort.
"He's one that's genuinely a good match-up on most players."
