The ruckman’s inclusion alleviates some of the dilemmas Freo faced in the big man department after Jon Griffin joined Aaron Sandilands and Kepler Bradley on the sidelines.
Nay Fyfe has served his two-game suspension and returns at the expense of Tendai Mzungu, who was omitted.
Tom Sheridan, Tanner Smith and Mzungu are the emergencies.
Freo general manager of football Chris Bond said, ideally, the club would have liked to play Clarke in the WAFL.
Although the ruckman was fit to play last week, the state fixture between WA and Victoria meant there were no WAFL games.
But Bond was confident Clarke would stand up at the top level.
“He’s done a tremendous amount of training,” he said.
“He’s worked really hard, got over his injury and we’re expecting him to be fully fit.”
Fyfe is among the best contested ball winners in the AFL – an area that is paramount against the hard-at-it Swans.
While obviously welcoming the star midfielder back in the side, Bond said the club was confident it had an even spread of players with good contested ball abilities.
“Nat needs to come in and play a role, which he will, and just make sure he works as hard as he did before he went out of the team,” he said.
The omitted Mzungu has missed just one game since making his AFL debut in round 9, 2011, however Bond was confident the 27-year-old would work his way back.
“He’s a long-term player for our football club, that’s not an issue,” Bond said.
Bond said Sydney at the SCG has been one of the most challenging fixtures in the AFL for a number of years.
But he added Freo would enter the game with confidence.
“We go over there and we think that if we do what we do well, we’re going to be really competitive,” he said.
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