The Swans may have lost ruckman Shane Mumford for up to a month with a broken cheek but coach John Longmire has conceded that suspended star recruit Kurt Tippett will not have the match conditioning to step directly into the breach.
Instead Tippett will be nursed up forward during his long-awaited Sydney debut against Port Adelaide in a fortnight and is likely to spend little more than half the game on the ground.
"I think he will stay forward for the moment, particularly after coming back for a long time out,'' said Longmire, who expects key forward Sam Reid and dasher Lewis Jetta to return from injury after this weekend's bye.
"When Kurt comes into the team it will take a number of weeks before he probably feels comfortable in the team, and that's only natural when you've been out for such a long time and you actually haven't played with your team mates.
"He'll get used to it the longer the weeks go and I'm sure the other players will gets used to him playing as well but the main focus for us is Kurt playing a role but our full pressure defence and full ground attack.''
A scratch match with his team mates this Saturday during the Swans' bye weekend is the closest Tippett will come to a game day workout before he finally steps back in the big time.
Traded to the Swans from Adelaide at the end of last season in messy and controversial circumstances, the 26-year-old has just completed an 11-match suspension for irregularities in his contract with the Crows.
"He's been doing a fair bit of work over the last six to eight weeks, it's been a really solid program, but as we know it's always difficult when you get into a game situation,'' Longmire said.
"As we saw on the weekend the tempo is pretty red hot and while he played a fair bit of senior footy it still takes a bit of time to get used to it.''
Not only do the Swans senior team have the bye this week but so do their reserves, prompting Longmire and his coaching staff to organise a full scale practice match.
"In an ideal world it would have been good to get a game into him, but we're going to have some pretty solid training sessions this week so we'll replicate a match situation, which we usually do during a bye anyway,'' Longmire said.
"Sometimes it's as good as a match situation anyway, with pressure being applied all over the ground.''
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