There was some heartening early signs for the Swans as they shook off pre-season cobwebs with a comfortable 32-point point victory over Essendon in an AFL trial match at Sydney.

Both teams played experimental lineups and took a cautious approach with major stars from both teams sitting out the 15-a-side contest at North Sydney Oval.

The final score was 14.12 (96) to 9.10 (64) in front of a crowd of just under 10,000.

There was encouraging performances for the Swans with their top draft pick Jarred Moore seemingly booking a spot for next week's Wizard Cup with a solid first-up outing.

For the Bombers, young tall Jason Laycock came good in the last term by booting three straight goals for his team.

Sydney coach Paul Roos felt there was a real edge around his AFL club before the match and his mosquito fleet were hungry from the start.

Sydney midfielder Jude Bolton was outstanding in the packs as the Bombers continued their ordinary pre-season form in recent times.

The Swans cruised to a 7.6 (48) to 3.8 (26) halftime lead after Essendon coach Kevin Sheedy showed the experimental nature of the match with his players staying in the same spot despite the teams changing directions at quarter-time.

The likes of Barry Hall, Adam Goodes, captain Stuart Maxfield, Jason Ball, Paul Williams, Nick Davis and Leo Barry sat out the match for the home side.

Meanwhile, the Bombers were missing such players as spearhead Matthew Lloyd, Mark and Jason Johnson and Dean Solomon.

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