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AAP
Joanna Guelas

Swans confident Papley, McInerney will play AFL finals

Injured Tom Papley should be back for the Swans' AFL Finals push, according to Sydney's coach. (Darren England/AAP PHOTOS)

Sydney coach John Longmire is quietly confident stars Tom Papley and Justin McInerney will be fit to play come AFL finals.

The Swans surged to an 18.13 (121) to 13.12 (90) victory against Adelaide at the SCG on Saturday night to clinch their first minor premiership since 2016.

As a result, Longmire's side will host a home qualifying final, with the week-one finals schedule set to be confirmed by the league on Sunday.

Star midfielder Isaac Heeney was managed late out of the Crows match, while Tom Papley (ankle) and Justin McInerney (knee) have been missing in action due to injury.

Confident Heeney will be free to play, Longmire admits there's still a lack of certainty around Papley and McInerney's return.

"We'll see how they go. They've still got a couple of weeks," Longmire said.

"They've done various levels of training. McInerney, he's done a fair bit actually. 'Paps' has done a bit and he's due to ramp it up this week.

"We're hopeful that they'll be available for that first week.

"They've certainly done an enormous amount of rehab work. They've been running. They've done various levels of ball work. 

"If they go the way they are, they should be available."

Papley has been sidelined since sustaining a medial ankle ligament injury in round 19 against Brisbane, while McInerney has been out with a posterior cruciate ligament injury since round 18.

Meanwhile, Heeney was rested following an ankle complaint.

"He's got a bit of a stiff ankle that he manages all the time," Longmire said.

"At the start of the week, it was sort of weighing up... my original thoughts were to play him about 80 minutes and play a majority forward. 

"As the week progressed, those thoughts probably didn't go away.

"You've got to be mindful of trying to get the balance right. You can't rest everyone en masse like some people were suggesting, that just doesn't work with a bye next week.

"He's had a big workload but he's also fit and he trains so hard and he plays such a competitive game.

"I was thinking even if he played tonight, if we tried to keep him out of the action, he couldn't help but be in the action so we made the call to pull him out and he should be fine."

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