Director of coaching John Blakey has witnessed his fair share of Sydney v Hawthorn encounters over the journey.

Since joining the Swans at the end of 2006, Blakey has been privy to 20 matches as an assistant coach including the highs of a premiership (2012) and the lows of a grand final defeat (2014).

Last year’s games offered him a mixed bag – a hard-fought four-point win at the MCG was then followed by a disappointing loss at ANZ Stadium.

As a result, Blakey has come to know pretty well what to expect from the reigning premiers.

“They’ve been the benchmark for years as we all know,” Blakey told SwansTV.

“They’re very hard to beat any time. We expect nothing short of a really tough encounter (on Friday) which they always give.

“You know they’re always going to turn up and play. Get a few goals up, you know they’re always going to come back.

“Hopefully it goes to down to the wire and hopefully we come out on top.”

The difficulty in facing the Hawks, as Blakey points out, is that they haven’t got many deficiencies or weaknesses to exploit.

As a former defensive coach, Blakey has been used to studying Hawthorn’s forward line, which ahead of Round 9 averaged the third most points per game of any side.

But, as Blakey stressed, the Hawks have strengths all over the ground and are flexible so it’s a matter of tackling them as a collective rather than trying to negate one area of the ground.

“We know they’ve got plenty of good players,” he added.

“And they’re capable of changing positions, whether that’s midfield, forward or drifting back.

“We’ll be preparing, as we do every week, for a side at their very best.”

Hawthorn expects Cyril Rioli, who missed a week due to personal reasons, to play. The small forward was best-on-ground in the last meeting between the Swans and the Hawks (20 disposals, eight tackles, three goals).

History says Nick Smith, who’ll line up for his 150th game on Friday, is likely to get the match-up.