SYDNEY superstar Lance Franklin will look to increase his training load over the next week as he targets being ready for round one, coach John Longmire says.

Franklin had surgery on his groin in November as a result of an injury he suffered against Greater Western Sydney in round 22 last season, leading the spearhead to be sidelined until early in 2019.

But he has slowly built his training program since then and took a considerable step forward at training last week, according to Longmire.

"There's a number of reasons why we'd like him (Franklin) out there training," Longmire said.

"He did a session two days ago and he's pulled up well from that. His training will increase over the next week."

Longmire was famously quoted as saying Franklin had trained for only 20 minutes last year after he injured his heel in round one.

Although his preparation has again been affected, Longmire is hopeful that the injury won't have too much of an impact on the gun forward's 2019 season.

"It's important to have him train, not only for his own touch and we saw last year he wasn't training and he was still named the All Australian captain so he was able to really maintain a high standard," Longmire said.

"But just for the team's aspect to have him training and sometimes when you're out on the ground to get used to not using him is actually a good thing as well to bring others into the game and not be so predictable.

"We really like the fact when he gets up the ground and runs around he's a hard match-up and he's a beautiful kick inside 50."

In Franklin and Daniel Menzel's (who is still recovering from his own groin injury) absence, Sam Reid will have the chance to stamp himself as a key target in attack for the Swans.

Reid played just one game last season, in round three, after injuring his quad in April and then his Achilles in July.

After missing last weekend's practice match against the Giants, Longmire said Reid was expected to return for Saturday night's JLT Community Series clash against the same opponent.

"He's been going along quite well. He missed last week, he was just a little bit tight so we didn't want to push him," Longmire said of Reid.

"He hardly played at all last year. He and Lewis Melican, to get those guys back into the swing of things and have them ready and available for the pre-season games is important.

"They're very smart players, Sam in particular gives us some real structure up front."

The Swans players that were part of the realestate.com.au AFLX tournament – Luke Parker, Josh Kennedy, Isaac Heeney and Aliir Aliir – are expected to line-up against the Giants on Saturday night.