The Swans are the latest Australian sporting team to pick the brains of the national cricket coach, who delivered a 30-minute speech to the premiership favourites recently in the bowels of the SCG, not far from where his team completed a memorable 5-0 Ashes drubbing earlier this year.

The session was the idea of coach John Longmire, who is not afraid to tap into other sports for ideas to improve his side.

"I thought it was something different," said Swans captain Kieren Jack. "It was good by the club, good by Darren to want to have a chat to us.

"I think, nationwide, we've seen a shift in the culture of the cricket team and it's probably testament to him, so it was good to harness what he's brought to the cricket side, what his thoughts and visions are and how he goes about it."

The take-home message for Jack was Lehmann's unflinching honesty and ability to give critical feedback to his players.

The Swans are no strangers to the concept and, facilitated by high performance developers Leading Teams, regularly critique themselves.

That is widely regarded as being a key driving force in the Swans establishing one of the most highly respected playing cultures in the league.

"What I got from it was [that] he's a very honest person; he'll tell you like it is," Jack said.

"There's no rubbish to him, which is a great trait to have, but he keeps things pretty simple too."

Lehmann told the Swans a key plank in the resurgence of Australian cricket in the past 12 months was the lifting of team standards.

The Australians were in disarray in July last year, but have since climbed to the top in both the Test and ODI formats, though South Africa recently regained the No.1 Test ranking.

"He set high standards for the group and made it clear that's where he wanted to get to," Jack said.

"I think the players bought into that, captain Michael] Clarke bought into that. They wanted to get the mantle of the top cricket side in the world and they worked extremely hard to do it.

"It's continually evolving; they want to continue to get better. He still doesn't think they're at their peak.

"Once they got to the top [they said], 'we're not going to sit back and rest'; they just want to keep improving and keep getting better. I thought there was some good insight there."

Jack said Lehmann was a big fan of capitalising on his players' strengths.

"It's something we try and do," Jack said.

"We have a game plan, but Lewis Jetta brings something different to Dan Hannebery so you want him to be able to harness his strength and that's something he's big on.

"I thought it was a pretty good exercise."

There is one Lehmann philosophy, however, the Swans will not adopt: reintroducing the post-game beer in the sheds.

"He did mention he was a pretty old-school coach and he didn't mind a beer, but I don't think we'll be taking that on board," Jack said.

Tom Mitchell has been handed a timely recall two weeks before the finals after being named to play his first senior game since round four.

He returns at the expense of youngster Dean Towers, who joins injured duo Josh Kennedy and Craig Bird out of the side from last week's victory over St Kilda.

Nick Smith and Rhyce Shaw also return after proving their fitness.

Midfielder Ben McGlynn resumed running on Friday and the Swans believe he is a chance to return next weekend against Richmond.

The Swans, who will start overwhelming favourites against the 14th-placed Western  Bulldogs, can secure a top-two finish and a first-up home final with victory on Sunday. "It's an important game for us," Longmire said. "There's plenty to play for."