Swans, Suns swing the axe following poor losses

Sydney coach John Longmire has run out of patience with his ladder-leading outfit, axing four players for Friday night's crunch clash with Collingwood in a bid to address his team's worrying form slump. In other big round-22 selection news, Jack Lukosius was among four Gold Coast players axed following last week's loss to West Coast, Fremantle forward Josh Treacy was ruled out of Saturday's clash with Geelong due to a knee injury, while Port Adelaide regain Todd Marshall but lose Mitch Georgiades. Longmire went whack on the selection front after watching his side slip to their fifth loss from their past six games. Against Port last week, the Swans were trailing 71-0 before losing by 112 points. Aaron Francis, Sam Wicks, Peter Ladhams and Corey Warner have all paid the price for that heavy defeat. Swans defender Dane Rampe returns from a calf injury in an important boost, while last week's late withdrawal Joel Amartey, Braeden Campbell and Caiden Cleary are also back. Collingwood named Joe Richards to replace Jordan De Goey, who suffered a season-ending hamstring injury last week. Suns coach Damien Damien Hardwick axed Lukosius, Brayden Fiorini, Joel Jeffrey and Malcolm Rosas for Saturday night's clash with Essendon at Marvel Stadium. "We're all about growth and learning, but sometimes players have to go back and have a little bit of a circuit-breaker and work on some things in their game they need to get better," Hardwick said. "That's not saying those players aren't important to us ... but they just have to get better at certain facets of the game, and they know that." Alex Davies, Jed Walter, Connor Budarick and Jake Rogers were named as their replacements. Western Bulldogs skipper Marcus Bontempelli has been named for Sunday's meeting with Adelaide despite suffering an ankle injury at training on Thursday. The Crows have been boosted by the return of Izak Rankine. A quad strain to Georgiades at training this week has been offset by the return of Marshall for Port's encounter with Melbourne at the MCG on Saturday night. The Demons have lost Steven May to a rib injury but welcome back Christian Salem and Adam Tomlinson. The Giants have named ruckman Lachlan Keeffe for his first game of the season and also welcome back Josh Kelly for Saturday's crunch clash with Brisbane at the Gabba. Keeffe comes in to replace the rested Kieren Briggs, with the Giants still missing Stephen Coniglio. Brisbane get back defender Darragh Joyce from a broken jaw, but Eric Hipwood (groin) will miss another match. West Coast recalled retiring wingman Andrew Gaff for Saturday's clash with North Melbourne in Hobart, with the Kangaroos calling upon veteran Liam Shiels. Fremantle made four changes for their high-stakes match against Geelong. Treacy (knee), Tom Emmett (suspension), James Aish (ommited) and Neil Erasmus (omitted) are out, with Nat Fyfe, Pat Voss, Matthew Johnson and Karl Worner all included. Geelong get back Gary Rohan and Mitch Duncan, but Sam De Koning is out with a knee injury. Richmond will make at least four changes for Sunday's meeting against St Kilda, with Dustin Martin (retired), Liam Baker (concussion), Tom Brown (ankle) and Steely Green (ankle) all coming out. The Saints will regain midfield duo Hunter Clark and Ryan Byrnes.