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Sydney coach John Longmire will put the acid on all players to put the defensive squeeze on North Melbourne in Friday's AFL preliminary final.
While minor premiers Sydney are hot favourites to win the ANZ Stadium showdown, the Kangaroos have cause for optimism.
They have won six in-a -row and humbled the Swans at the SCG in round four, inflicting their biggest loss (43 points) and lowest score 6.12 (48) of the season.
North didn't have Andrew Swallow or Jack Ziebell that day and both will add firepower to an already impressive midfield group.
"[Nick] Dal Santo, [Sam] Gibson, [Daniel] Wells, [Brent] Harvey. You can't tag them all," Longmire said on Thursday.
"We need to make sure that our 18-man defence is really strong.
"We are going up against a team that has won six in-a-row and are in ripping form, and have a good team available as well.
Kangaroos coach Brad Scott expected the inside midfield battle to determine the contest, but hinted at a plan to again curtail the influence of Sydney's Coleman Medal winner Lance Franklin.
The Swans spearhead was held goalless for the only time in 20 games this season in the SCG clash, where he was outplayed by Scott Thompson.
"It's about mitigating the supply to him and making sure we defend really well," Scott said. "We've got a plan in place, but it's going to come down to how well we execute it."
The fitness news on Thursday favoured the Swans.
Longmire expected All-Australian defender Nick Malceski to play after recovering from a hamstring injury he suffered early in the Swans' qualifying final win over Fremantle.
For North, Jamie Macmillan (hamstring) was ruled out on Thursday, along with Lachie Hansen (hip) and Leigh Adams (concussion), neither of whom played in last week's semi-final win over Geelong.
While Sydney will be playing a preliminary final for a third straight year, North haven't advanced so deep into September for seven seasons.
Longmire couldn't quantify how significant that was.
But Scott alluded to the Kangaroos' big-time temperament by referring to their wins over the three other preliminary finalists, and finals victories over Essendon and Geelong in the past fortnight.
"The facts are the facts, we've beaten all the good sides," Scott said. "You can say that's irrelevant. You can say that was a long time ago, but big games in finals we've won." AAP