"We've been speaking about putting four quarters together for the past 3½ years, to be honest," the Giants co-captain said after training on Wednesday.

"Over the first two games [this season], we put together maybe one to 1½ [then] two on the weekend. It would be nice to get four quarters."

Not just nice, it's essential because, if the Giants don't produce a sustained, full-throttle effort in round three against the Swans, they will be left licking their wounds.

Sydney are coming off a high-pressure win in which they suffocated Port Adelaide with 76 tackles and a 146 contested possessions. GWS are on a roll, too, but the quality of their opposition goes up a couple of notches on Saturday at the Sydney Cricket Ground.

"To beat the Swans, you have to be good in all aspects, defence, offence and obviously contested ball," coach Leon Cameron said.

"They dominate those three areas when they're on song. If you let them have their own way, sometimes they can be unbeatable. But we're not afraid of taking on the Swans this Saturday, we think it's a great opportunity.

"Their pressure and their defence is probably the backbone of their game. They pride themselves on that. We're obviously a young side understanding the value of defence, but we've been really pushing that for the past two and a bit years.

"You can't rely on natural talent to get by. Our tackle pressure is getting better and it has to be at its very best on Saturday night.

"It's a really good challenge for our young side to step up to the mark. We feel as though we've closed the gap in the past year, in particular. It's a good opportunity to play against a top-four side and put all your systems in place against a side that's really well rounded and well coached."

GWS will be without tall forward Adam Tomlinson, who will have surgery on Thursday after being ruled out for 12 weeks with a broken toe, leaving Cameron assessing several options to help Shane Mumford ruck against Mumford's former protege Mike Pyke and Pyke's part-time assistant Kurt Tippett.

Tippett will be a handful with Lance Franklin down the ground, providing the GWS back six with arguably the toughest job in football.

"They're in good form, but so is our backline," Cameron said.

"We feel as though our backline has gone a fair way to improving their one-on-one contests and their ability to read the ball ... But there's no doubt it's going to be a huge task.

"They're two really powerful forwards. But they don't just rely on those guys, they rely on a number of players to play their roles. Our back six, back seven, are going to have to be on their game."

Ward said he was confident the defence could douse the Swans' offensive firepower.

"We've got plenty of good backs in at the moment," he said.

"They're all playing really well for each other, helping each other … Our team defence is really good as well. Obviously the Swans have some really good key forwards. But all over the ground, they've got some really good star players. So it's a huge challenge for us."