Sydney coach John Longmire plans to rush Ted Richards straight back into the Swans' defensive line for Saturday's danger game against Richmond after losing young utility Dan Robinson for half the AFL season.
Longmire on Thursday revealed Robinson had been ruled out for at least three months after dislocating his shoulder in Sydney's big weekend win over Essendon.
"It's unlucky for him. He's played every game for us this year as a young player coming through and has done a really good job for us," Longmire said.
"But we have obviously the option of bringing Teddy back in.
"It will be a real benefit to have him mark forwards in their team that he could play on."
Veteran Richards, who has recovered from a fractured eye socket suffered in his best-on-ground performance against West Coast in round five, will likely get first crack at containing Tigers gun Jack Riewoldt.
"He's been having a great season, Riewoldt. He's added so much versatility to his game," Longmire said.
"He's up the ground a lot more now than he ever was a few years ago and he's such a beautiful kick - not only kick for goal but his field kick and he's been using that to great effect when he's been up the ground.
"So that provides a couple of challenges to our defensive group."
While the Swans are cruising in third spot after a six-from-seven start, they are wary of Richmond despite the Tigers languishing in 15th place with just one win.
The Tigers have won three of their past five encounters with Sydney - including the last two - and the Swans are still smarting after blowing a big halftime advantage last year.
"And they're a team that played really well for three quarters at the weekend against last year's premiers," Longmire noted.
"They were terrific and, from what I hear out of their camp, they were pretty happy with the way they played for three quarters of the game.
"They also get a couple of reasonable players back this week, in particular Alex Rance, so they'll be pretty confident I imagine."
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