Youngster Tim Schmidt went from AFL match-winner to reserve grade inside a week after he made way for returning star Tadhg Kennelly in the Swans' side for Sunday's clash with Richmond at the SCG.

South Australian Schmidt, 22, made a triumphant return to his home state last week, when his banana-kick goal put Sydney ahead before he set up a clinching major for teammate Jarrad McVeigh.

While Swans coach Paul Roos acknowledged the importance of Schmidt's contribution against Port, he had no qualms recalling Kennelly in his place.

The dashing Irish defender, who missed last week's game after dislocating a knee-cap the previous week against Essendon, was cleared to return after coming through training.

Roos said Schmidt's second-half performance last week showed he was "a quality AFL player".

"It's almost like last one in, first one out," Roos said of Schmidt's demotion.

"It's unfortunate someone misses out but obviously Tadhg is a good player and we need to get him back in the team."

Roos was looking forward to just the second opportunity to start his trio of running defenders - Kennelly, off-season recruit Martin Mattner and Nick Malceski, who recently made his return from a knee reconstruction following revolutionary surgery.

However, the Sydney coach didn't expect the three men to hit their stride collectively for at least another couple of weeks as he said Malceski was still getting back to full fitness.

"We're probably not going to see the best of the three of them for probably two, three or four weeks," Roos said.

"But it's certainly important, because we know what each one of them can do individually, we don't know yet what all three can do together, individually they are three very, very good players."

Roos said there was a possibility Adam Goodes could again line up on Tigers star Matthew Richardson as he did in the recent Hall of Fame game, but doubted it would happen for an extended period.

The second third of the season is often when the Swans make their move following their traditional tardy start, but Roos said the situation this year was a little bit different because they enjoyed good momentum at the beginning of the campaign.

"There's probably not as much pressure in terms of ladder position as maybe there's been the last few years, because we got off to a much better start," Roos said.

"But I think we'd like to keep building throughout the season, there's no question we think our best footy is to come and we think we can keep getting better.

"We've got Hally (Barry Hall) to come back soon, so we need to keep on improving and we need to keep getting better."

Roos said 11th-placed Richmond had become "a very good inside team" with some hard bodies around the ball.

"They played some good footy against some of the better teams, the Bulldogs and Hawthorn, so we're well aware they are a very, very capable side," Roos said.

"They tackle well, they put pressure on, so we're under no illusions it's going to be a very, very hard game."

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