DESPITE being in sparkling form in his 16th season, Sydney defender Jarrad McVeigh still intends to retire at season's end, his coach John Longmire says.

Last September, the club announced McVeigh had signed on for this year with a coaching role to follow his playing career finishing up. When that time would be was not announced, with a Swans statement saying: "A decision on his playing future post-2018 will be made at the end of next year."

However, Longmire told Melbourne radio station SEN on Saturday there were no plans for the 33-year-old to extend his 311-game career.

"At the moment, he's retiring at the end of this year. That's what the plan is," Longmire said.

"We haven't had any discussions contrary to that but he's been playing well. He's just really contributing every week but we haven't had any of those discussions yet.

"The plan was set at the end of last year and we haven't spoken about any adjustment of that at all to this point."

McVeigh is averaging 22 disposals per game and is ranked No.12 in the competition for total rebound 50s.

Meanwhile, a half-time spray gave the perennial finalists a reminder of how much room for improvement there is, even if they're sitting pretty in the top four after an ugly win over Carlton.

The Swans have finished outside the top eight only once in the past 15 seasons.

Longmire's men, who face St Kilda away before hosting ladder-ladder West Coast in a blockbuster, are on track to extend that streak.

That is not to say all is rosy at the SCG, as Longmire and the club's leaders explained at half-time of Friday night's clash with the Blues.

The Swans eventually eased to a 30-point victory but trailed by a point after the opening two quarters.

"A little bit of a spray at half-time, got the boys up and about," Isaac Heeney told AAP.

"It was led by the leadership group.

"We've got to be on our game from the start. We've got to start producing four-quarter performances if we want to beat a team like West Coast, who are flying.

"We're playing a bit of inconsistent footy at the moment and it's just getting us over the line."

Longmire, speaking in his post-match press conference, lamented how the Swans' work around the stoppages dropped off in the second quarter.

"We just weren't doing what we should have done. There wasn't enough communication, some structural things. We touched on that at half-time," Longmire said.

"The players were able to sort that out, get it organised. Which was important."