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Sydney have farewelled some of their retiring premiership heroes and marked Lance Franklin's 300th AFL game with a 45-point win over St Kilda at the SCG.

Lance Franklin has been booked in for some off-season surgery after a four-goal haul in his 300th AFL appearance, with Sydney farewelling some of their 2012 premiership heroes in fine style in a 45-point win over St Kilda.

The Swans kicked 11 goals to three in Saturday afternoon's second half at the SCG to punish the wayward Saints, winning 17.7 (109) to 8.16 (64).

Franklin, who had missed eight games with hamstring issues, banged over some trademark long goals after a slow start.

In a fairytale finish in front of a crowd of adoring Swans supporters, Jarrad McVeigh and Kieren Jack each kicked a goal in the final quarter of their last games before retiring.

McVeigh's major meant he kicked at least one goal in each of his 16 seasons, and he moved up to joint second on the Swans' appearance list with 325 games, level with former teammate Jude Bolton, who was at the ground.

With two other retiring Swans - Nick Smith and Heath Grundy, who weren't playing, also chaired off the ground with Franklin - it was close to a perfect day for the majority of the 33,722 crowd and a memorable day for the Swans.

"It's one of the more special games, up there with finals, winning grand finals," Sydney co-captain Josh Kennedy said.

For all the emotion and joy of the day, both Kennedy and Sydney coach John Longmire pointed out Sydney had missed the finals for the first time in 10 years.

Longmire said Franklin, who played just 10 games this year due to groin and hamstring issues, would have some surgery next week and explained the reasoning behind bringing him back for just one game.

"People asked why are you playing him - what's the point? The point is we need to get him back training flat out to see if he needed anything done in the off-season," Longmire said.

"So we didn't have to wait eight or nine weeks to get him back at the start of the pre-season and then maybe do something like we did last year.

"He gets an ankle and a couple of other things done next week, but he'll be back going by the end of November in full training."

Sydney looked on course for a comfortable win after their highest-scoring first quarter of the season, kicking 6.2 to lead by 21 points at the first break.

St Kilda threatened to be party poopers after a dominant second term in which they kicked the only three goals to draw level by halftime and were up by three points in the third quarter.

"We didn't put any scoreboard pressure on to be three or four goals up and have some breathing space," Carlton coach Brett Ratten said.

St Kilda finished 3-3 under Ratten, who said he expected to learn within seven to 10 days if we would get the job on a permanent basis.

While the day was about Sydney's veterans, their youngsters excelled.

Tom McCartin kicked three goals, coming back after an early injury, and Jordan Dawson also shone, while former Swan Dan Hannebery was strong for the Saints.