Sydney won't be fooled into focusing all their efforts on North Melbourne big man Ben Brown in Saturday night's clash at the SCG.
Despite not bothering the scorers in the season opener, Brown leads the Coleman medal race after round six with 23 goals, and poses huge problems for the Swans' defence, who don't appear to have the height to counter the star Kangaroo.
Sydney's experienced key defenders in Dane Rampe and Heath Grundy have managed to quell Brown's influence in recent meetings, with the tall forward only kicking seven goals in six outings against the Swans, but coach John Longmire said the visitors aren't a one-man offence.
Jarrad Waite (13) is the only other Roo to boot more than 10 goals this season but the Swans coach identified a number of other options North have and said cutting off their supply is the key.
"We look at North Melbourne and clearly understand the value of Waite, Brown and (Jack) Ziebell as offensive threats, and (Shaun) Higgins is an absolute talent," he said on Thursday.
"We're aware of that, offensively they've got a couple of key forwards that are extremely dangerous and talented; Higgins might come back in and Ziebell has been playing forward.
"If Brown gets a good launch at it he's very hard to stop because of his height and his speed.
"Once again it gets down to the midfield battle and (us) making sure we can get some sort of advantage in that part of the ground.
"If it's coming out of there quickly eventually they'll kick scores because they just so talented."
The Swans' strong record at home has always been one of their greatest strengths, but they've dropped two of three games at the SCG this season.
They lost their round two clash to Port Adelaide after giving up seven goals in the third term, then won their round three derby with Greater Western Sydney, before then losing a tight one to Adelaide in round five after being dominated by the Crows' midfield early in the game.
"The reality is we've played one good game here, against GWS," Longmire said.
"We need to play well on our home ground and we can talk about it until we're blue in the face, but we have to go out and do it this week.
"We need to play a really hard, strong brand of footy for four quarters and that’s what our challenge is."
Forward Dean Towers has been cleared to play after copping a poke in the eye at training last week and missing the Swans' win over Geelong and, if selected, would be a handy inclusion to help Callum Sinclair take on North ruckman Todd Goldstein.
