SYDNEY marquee recruit Taylor Smith is expected to miss three to four weeks after suffering a forearm fracture during Sunday's 24-point win over Essendon.

The key forward injured her wrist midway through the third quarter and underwent further assessment earlier this week. While the club is holding out hope for a quicker recovery, the current timeline rules Smith out for up to a month.

“It was just an incident with Taylor where she hurt her wrist midway through the third quarter. It looks like it's going to be three to four weeks. Hopefully it can be earlier, but at the minute it looks like three to four,” coach Colin O’Riordan said on Thursday.

Although it's early in the season, the Swans’ injury list is growing, with several other players pulling up sore after the clash with the Bombers. Laura Gardiner (foot), Ash Van Loon (calf), and Holly Cooper (elbow) are all listed as tests for Saturday’s match against Euro-Yroke in Coffs Harbour.

With eight players currently sidelined, Sydney could be forced to activate top-up players if seven or more remain unavailable by game day. However, O’Riordan insisted the club is not reaching for replacements just yet.

“It's been challenging as a first-time head coach, he said.

“The injury list is probably bigger than what we'd want. But at the same time, as we go through training, a few of the girls are going to be tested this week. So, I don't think we're actually going to lose that many this week, but a few of them will be tested. We just have to get through T2 (training). At the minute, we're not looking at top-up players yet, but if it keeps growing, obviously it's something to consider. But not at the minute.”

Despite a difficult week off the field for the Swans, a record-breaking crowd of 16,672 packed the SCG last Sunday, shattering the club's previous AFLW attendance mark.

The unprecedented turnout followed a turbulent week in which the club's culture and attitude towards women were called into question after five senior players received season-ending suspensions over a Melbourne hotel incident that sparked a police investigation. In response, a footy-wide movement urged fans to attend the match in solidarity.

While O’Riordan admitted there is “no blueprint” for addressing the fallout, he said the team navigated the week through open dialogue, honesty, and vulnerability.

"We were really open with each other. We're a really connected club, and we were really open with how we felt,” he said.

“One thing we talk about a lot is how we want to feel and how we want to make each other feel. I'm big on connection within our group, how we play for each other, and getting each other through tough times.

“This was a good test of everything we spoke about during the pre-season from a football sense. Football and life can overlap a little bit, and we just wanted to be, as I said last week, a beacon of hope for everyone and, as a group, just stay connected. I'm really proud that the girls could lean in and stay connected.

“The best way anyone connects with anyone is by being vulnerable and being honest. We had some conversations together where we probably dropped the body armour a little bit. I think as humans, everyone thinks you're 10 feet tall and bulletproof all the time, and that nothing affects you, but this affected a lot of people in a lot of different ways.

“I think just acknowledging that, accepting it, and then trying to help each other... Sometimes you get caught up in what it is to be a human or even just a football player, but how can you help your teammates? How do we help each other get through tough times? Sometimes you forget that, and that's what we needed to do during the whole week.”

Despite these off-field difficulties, the team eventually refocused on their performance on the field, using the match and their close bond to stay grounded.

“At the end of the day, we kind of realised midweek that we actually still had to play a game of football,” O’Riordan said.

“While football was secondary last week … just diving in on football and giving us that football focus was the main message in what we were trying to achieve.”