KURT Tippett is likely to play his first game of 2014 on Saturday, giving the struggling Sydney Swans some sizeable help for their clash with Fremantle.

Tippett has been trying to overcome knee tendonitis dating back to last year's finals series, but has made excellent progress in recent weeks and is ready to offer Lance Franklin some help in the Swans' misfiring front half.

Despite having 66 inside 50s against North Melbourne last weekend, the Swans kicked just six goals, with two of them coming from defender Jeremy Laidler.

But Tippett's 201cm, 105kg frame would give the Swans another welcome avenue to goal as they attempt to turn around a 1-3 start to the year.

"He trained again yesterday and trained really well and pulled up well, so we expect him to play this week," Swans coach John Longmire told reporters at the SCG.

"The discussion will be whether it's reserves or seniors.

"I don’t want to come under criticism for playing him in the seniors because he might be a bit too tall."

Longmire, who has found himself in a little hot water due to his team's form, was poking fun at the criticism over his tall line-up to face the Kangaroos.

Ruckman Daniel Currie was a late withdrawal from the North side, replaced by Robin Nahas on a wet day in Sydney, while the Swans stuck with Mike Pyke, Tom Derickx, Franklin, Laidler and Lewis Roberts-Thomson.

Emergency Craig Bird, a noted wet-weather specialist, was among those left playing in the reserves.

"We talked about it before the game, but we had three wet games last year at the SCG and won all three with two ruckmen in the team," Longmire said.

"It gets highlighted obviously when it doesn't work and I still get back to making sure that we were prepared to work hard regardless of who played.

"It didn't work out on the weekend, there's no denying that, but it doesn't mean the result would've been a whole heap different if we went smaller and served up the same effort."

Tippett has proven he can contribute on a limited preparation, shown last year when he missed the first half of the season through suspension, yet still topped the Swans' goalkicking with 35 from 12 appearances.

But Longmire acknowledges Tippett is no saviour, stating the Swans have gone away from their basic fundamentals of work rate, contested football and accountability so far this season.

It was also suggested to Longmire some of his senior players, notably those who have carried the load during the club's recent success, are down on form.

"I think that's a fair comment and we haven't had that consistent output of players we normally have," the coach said.

"But we've still got enormous faith in those blokes to make sure that they turn their seasons around personally but also from a teams perspective.

"We're confident those blokes can do it and keep driving each other during the week and on match days to get back to that type of form we know they can."

Longmire said it was too early to speculate about possible team changes this week, but Tippett's return would likely make it difficult for Derickx to retain his place.

Veteran Ryan O'Keefe is another who finds himself under pressure, with Bird ready to come in and fill a similar role in the forward half, although Longmire hinted O'Keefe's body size could be handy against the Freo midfield.

Longmire also isn't shirking away from the challenge of taking on a Dockers side that roared back to form against Essendon on Sunday.

"They're a good quality team that makes you work hard both ways," Longmire said.

"We saw they were very disappointed with their own performance the week before against Hawthorn and were able to bounce back really strongly and aggressively.

"That's our challenge and that's a good example, that Fremantle were able to show how to bounce back and how to show some resilience after the previous week's performance.

"They came back and were really strong against Essendon.

"We need to bounce back with the same sort of determination."