Key defender Aidan Corr and star forward Toby Greene will return to the GIANTS side for Sydney Derby XVII with co-captain Phil Davis cleared to play in Saturday night’s clash. 

Greene will line up for his first game since round one after completing a solid block of training following calf tightness that has seen him miss the last month.

“It’s disappointing when we don’t have him playing because he’s an integral part of our forward six,” said coach Leon Cameron. 

“We feel as though we got some good training into him, lots of running again. To be totally honest he actually had a really good eight-week block in the lead up to round one, it was just unfortunate there was an incident where he overstepped and just got a small calf issue. 

“We’re hoping we can some continuity with him, he’s important to us. He’s eager, he’s keen and we expect him to have an impact."

Corr returns to the side for his first game since round 17 last year after groin soreness prematurely ended his season and affected this pre-season. 

He has played the last three NEAFL matches and slots back into his customary position in the backline.

“He plays a really important role, he plays some really good defence for us. He’s last line, he has the ability to play on talls, mediums and smalls and we love that about him,” Cameron said.

"He’s competitive, has elite speed and we look forward to having him back in.”

Co-captain Phil Davis has been cleared to take on the Swans after recovering from a rolled ankle suffered late in last week’s loss to the Dockers.

“It didn’t look good because he obviously rolled over on it a fair way but he probably started putting his hand up early in the week,” Cameron said.

“Sunday he was a bit sore but Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday he made some clear ground on the rolled ankle. 

“He’s confident in himself and we back him. He’s our co-captain, he wouldn’t put up his hand if he wasn’t able to play his role.” 

The 17th edition of the clash between the cross-town rivals shapes as an important one for both sides with the Swans sitting at 1-4 for the season and the GIANTS 3-2 and both teams coming off disappointing losses. 

“We’re both coming off a loss, no one wants to lose in this business,” Cameron said.

"We both lick our wounds from the weekend and acknowledge we need to be better in certain areas. 

“We let ourselves down so we need to come with an aggressive mindset to right the wrongs and we look forward to doing that like Sydney will as well. 

“I think it will be a classic Derby, it will just be a brutal, hard-hitting Derby, two teams will just go hell for leather until that final siren. 

“It’s good to have that test early in the year, we feel as though we’ve started pretty well albeit that disappointing loss last week but this competition is so even we have to be at our best to beat them.”

The Swans and GIANTS go head-to-head at the SCG on Saturday night at 7:25pm

Round 6

Swans v GIANTS
Saturday, April 27 at 7:25pm
SCG

FB: Heath Shaw, Phil Davis, Jeremy Finlayson
HB: Sam Taylor, Nick Haynes, Adam Tomlinson
C: Adam Kennedy, Josh Kelly, Lachie Whitfield
HF: Toby Greene, Jeremy Cameron, Matt de Boer
FF: Brent Daniels, Harry Himmelberg, Daniel Lloyd
RR: Shane Mumford, Stephen Coniglio, Tim Taranto
Interchange: Zac Williams, Sam Reid, Jacob Hopper, Aidan Corr 

In: Toby Greene, Aidan Corr
Out: Matt Buntine, Jackson Hately 

Emergencies: Jackson Hately, Isaac Cumming, Matt Buntine, Dawson Simpson