'Dons seek breakthrough AFL win over Swans

Jun 22, 2017 - 5:31 PM It's been almost six years since Essendon beat Sydney.

It was round 20 of the 2011 AFL season, when John Longmire was in the midst of his first campaign as Swans head coach.

The supplements saga had yet to derail the Bombers, while John Worsfold was still mentoring West Coast.

Sydney have since enjoyed six consecutive victories over the Bombers, the most recent an 81-point belting at the SCG. Another triumph will equal the Swans' best ever winning streak against Essendon.

It is a remarkable run of head-to-head results, especially when coupled with Lance Franklin's dominance over Essendon throughout his storied career.

Worsfold cares little about both statistics and is confident his players will share the same mindset when they tackle Sydney at the SCG on Friday night.

"I could go back," Worsfold said.

"But that really has no impact on what we're building here. Everything we're doing is about how we want to play our footy and become a great team.

"We were really pleased with the way we played up here last year with an undermanned team, so (the SCG) holds no barriers for us at all."

Worsfold expressed somewhat similar sentiments about Franklin and his 64 goals in 13 games against them.

"I don't know if he saves his best for us but he's played well in the past. I haven't seen the record, so haven't given it a lot of thought," Worsfold said.

"Our planning has been around how we want to play now. We're a different side to last year, we're a fairly different side compared to the last four or five years."

The Bombers will be without Cale Hooker, who dislocated his finger at training this week after booting five goals in the last-start thumping of Port Adelaide. He's been replaced by Shaun McKernan.

Source: AAP