Sydney coach John Longmire expects his star forward Lance Franklin to be better for his opening-round run despite a quiet start to his AFL campaign.
Franklin, who didn't play any pre-season games after undergoing groin surgery, received little service in the Swans' 17-point season-opening loss to the Western Bulldogs, touching the ball just seven times and kicking 1.2.
"He actually played longer minutes than what we anticipated he played slightly over 90, which was a bit more than what we thought going in," Longmire said.
He said Franklin had pulled up well from the game.
"Whether it's Lance, Ollie (Florent), Jonesy (Zak Jones), Lloydy (Jake Lloyd), a few players will be better for that run," Longmire said.
"Lance's month of training is more than what he did for the entire home-and-away season last year before he played on the weekend, so he's actually ahead of schedule in regards to his preparation."
Longmire revealed forward Dan Menzel, who also had off season groin surgery, suffered a slight setback last week.
"We expect him to be back training within two weeks and then a couple of weeks training after that before he plays," Longmire said.
The coach said forward Ben Ronke could be in contention to return for Friday's home game with Adelaide if he trained well on Wednesday after recovering from a knee knock.
Longmire will be looking for quicker reactions from his players against the Crows, after admitting they were beaten at the contest by the Bulldogs.
"We were really poor at both winning the ball, which is the most important thing, but really average in transition and we just didn't use the ball well," he said.
"When you react slowly you let the opposition strike at the ball with more intent and they were able to get their game going and we weren't."
Longmire said a lot of work had been done to the SCG surface and hoped the centre wicket area would stands up to the wear and tear and conditions in Friday's game.
"The reality is if it gets wet, it could be an issue slipping wise but generally we've found it okay to this point," Longmire said.
