In another delay to the club's hopes of unveiling its all-star forward line, tall forward Reid will miss the Swans' return to the reconfigured SCG to take on North Melbourne on Sunday and the following week's clash with Fremantle.

Sydney is also without Kurt Tippett, whose short-term future remains uncertain, and Adam Goodes, leaving Franklin as the key tall target inside the forward 50.

But premiership forward Craig Bird is expected to be available this week after missing the win in Adelaide due to a calf injury.

Reid injured his Achilles at training late last week, continuing his poor run with injury after having his 2013 campaign ruined by a series of quadriceps strains, limiting him to just 10 games.

"Reidy will be out for a couple more weeks, his Achilles is still a bit sore," coach John Longmire said on Monday.

"He's walking around all right but it means he won't train this week and mightn't have the preparation for next week.

"He had a good pre-season and was in pretty good form too, but if it's only a couple of weeks it's a good thing. Hopefully it's no longer than that."

Tippett will join the Swans' main group on Wednesday and could be a chance to make his 2014 debut the following week if he trains strongly.

Franklin, after an underwhelming start in the red and the white, made significant improvement against Adelaide with four goals and 20 possessions.

"His form was really solid, he not only kicked goals himself, which he's capable of doing, he gave goals away and a lot of boys were on the end of his good work," Longmire said.

"And he got a lot of the ball up the ground and was able to put boys into space with his kicking penetration. That meant he was effective not only when he was kicking goals but helping others."

The clash with North will be the Swans' first this season at the SCG, which was transformed into a baseball diamond last month and had a new stand completed during the summer.

The ground has also been slightly lengthened following the redevelopment, but at 155 metres in length remains the shortest of the AFL venues.

The Swans will have their first training run on the ground on Wednesday.

One of the key issues facing Longmire and his match committee this week will be stopping Kangaroos veteran Brent Harvey.

Longmire is full of admiration for his former teammate, who this week will play game No.366 and climb to equal seventh with Bernie Quinlan on the AFL's games list.

"I've played with Boomer and he's still playing well. He's a really, really top-line player,'' Longmire said.

"He'll go down in history at the North Melbourne Football Club as one of the all-time greats. He's still playing at an extremely high level and still a thorn in opposition teams' sides.

"He's not just getting through his career, he's getting better and better at times. I'm not sure what he's eating but I might have to get on that diet."