“We went into this year knowing we’d have to manage him,but he’s been saddling up and getting out there and putting the overalls on and really battled away for us.
“It’s been admirable. There’s been a number of games where he’s been really under the weather sickness-wise and his knee hasn’t been as good as what it has been,so.
“We’re keen to see him back to his best,back to feeling good and confident in his body,and we don’t think that’s too far away.”
The win over the Eagles was effectively worth two wins for the Swans,given the sizeable boost it gave their percentage,but they remain in 13th position - four points and percentage behind eight-placed Adelaide,and with a difficult run home including games against Richmond (away),the Western Bulldogs (home),Fremantle (away),Essendon (away),the Giants (away),Gold Coast (home),the Crows (away) and Melbourne (home). All of those teams are either in the finals hunt with them or safely ensconced in the top half of the ladder.
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“There’s no other way to say it - every game from here is big,” Rampe said.
“What the weekend did was just give us confidence in our ability to play four quarters,which is what we’ve struggled to do over the course of the year.
“That’s probably what we were most proud of,regardless of what’s going at West Coast. We weren’t getting ahead of ourselves,we weren’t getting excited and thinking it’s party time,despite the scoreline ... everyone wanted to be really diligent with the way we went about it and see the whole game out.[It was] the first time we’ve done that all year.”
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