SWANS coach John Longmire admits he is confused by the AFL's stance on sliding tackles and feels the administration itself is still working out its guidelines on the matter.

The Swans have been involved in two high-profile examples of the rule in recent weeks, firstly with Adam Goodes suspended for leading with his knees in an incident with Port Adelaide's Jacob Surjan.

Then this week, North's Lindsay Thomas was initially handed a three-match ban - which would have been reduced to two matches if he pleaded guilty - for sliding into a tackle that left young Swan Gary Rohan with a broken leg.

That ban was quashed on appeal on Tuesday night.

While Longmire totally supports the AFL's desire to eliminate dangerous tackles, he feels there is still plenty of uncertainty.

"We've been in the unenviable position of being on both sides of the debate and discussion over the last week," he told reporters before training on Wednesday.

"Obviously with Goodesy being suspended and then Gary Rohan having a broken leg, there's still some grey areas when you're looking at everything.

"We certainly didn't have any problem with Lindsay getting off, but when you look at Adam's incident the week before - we said to Adam to make sure you stand up in those contests, according to what Jacob Surjan was doing.

"(Surjan) was on the ground, so that was the only alternative to what Adam could've done.

"We still think there's a little bit of confusion.

"We agree with the AFL looking into all the sliding ... and it's a debate that needed to happen, but we still think there's some way to go."

Heading into this weekend's match with Hawthorn in Launceston, Longmire said the unbeaten Swans will again be without ruckman Shane Mumford as he continues recovering from an infection related to a back problem.

But he is hopeful Nick Smith (virus) and Lewis Roberts-Thomson (cheekbone) will return.

"Shane Mumford won't play," Longmire said.

"We had a small window hoping he might play, but he hasn't had enough training and won't be playing.

"But Nick and 'LRT' will certainly be named in the squad and we'll see how they pull up after Friday."

Longmire laughed when it was suggested Smith, who has been suffering vertigo from a severe inner ear infection, would need to be 100 per cent if he was to line up on Hawk Cyril Rioli.

"That's a very good point," he said.

"If he's not over it, he certainly might have a case of it after playing on Cyril."

James Dampney covers Sydney AFL news for AFL.com.au. Follow him on Twitter: @AFL_JD

The views in this article are those of the author and not necessarily of the AFL or the clubs