Tippett fires in Swans' intra-club

Kurt Tippett looked the goods. Picture: Tim Hunter Source: HWT Image Library

KURT Tippett showed more than enough in a Sydney intra-club match to confirm he should make a major contributon to the Swans' premiership defence.

The only problem is he will now have to wait until June 22 before entering the fray again.

The former Adelaide ruck-forward fired alongside Sam Reid in the game at Lakeside Oval, earning plenty of praise from coach John Longmire.

The contest was a long way divorced from the rigours of an AFL match but the quality of Tippett's opponents, including Ted Richards and Heath Grundy, was not to be sneered at.

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Longmire said Tippett had ticked all the right boxes during the reigning premiers' pre-season, but that the biggest test would come now - an 11-match suspension for his part in the Crows' salary cap saga.

"It's good to see Kurt Tippett have a really good strong hit-out and have five or six shots at goal - against a quality defence," Longmire said.

Daily Telegraph. The Sydney Swans practice match in Moore Park today. Picture: Tim Hunter Source: HWT Image Library

"He's obviously got to make the most of these opportunities because he doesn't have too many games coming up."

Longmire acknowledged managing his star recruit's workload, and balancing the fact he'll be minus half an AFL season of match fitness, would be a challenge for the club.

"He looked really good today, he looked sharp. He's been doing all the training," he said.

"Obviously we need to make sure he gets enough conditioning and he keeps his conditioning up. We'll work out a program.

"We'll also work through the frustrations that he no doubt will feel at different times during the year when he's not able to play.

"But we're confident he'll be able to round his game off really well in that period, work on some things he needs to work on."

The Swans start their pre-season campaign on Sunday week against Greater Western Sydney and Carlton and at least four premiership players will be sidelined.

Co-captain Adam Goodes (knee), Marty Mattner (hip), Nick Smith (knee) and Shane Mumford (ankle) are likely to be missing, but all are expected to be ready for the season proper.

Longmire said the side's grand final win over Hawthorn was nothing but a memory and counted for nothing now.

"Everyone's on the same number of points at the start of the year and we need to get better.'

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