To do that, the Swans must overcome the loss of Kurt Tippett, who has been ruled out with a hairline fracture of the jaw, while it has also been confirmed that Callum Mills will be out with a hamstring strain.

Long thought of as September specialists, the Swans have lost their past four finals, in which twice they were monstered by harder and more committed teams.

While their loss to Greater Western Sydney was not as humiliating as the grand final annihilation they suffered in 2014, both times the Swans were found wanting in the physicality stakes. Equally as alarming for the Swans' brains trust, it was the second time in three months they had been beaten in such fashion by the Giants.

The Swans will draw encouragement from how they responded to their mid-year defeat against the Giants when they overcame a six-day break to upset Geelong at Simonds Stadium. This time they have an extra day to dust themselves off and are playing at home against the Crows, who kept their season alive by putting North Melbourne out of their misery.

The Crows defeated Sydney narrowly in round four in Adelaide in a game many believe to be one of the best of the season. The Swans, however, are warm favourites but will have to stop one of the most dangerous forward lines in the league.

They will be looking for a dramatic lift in their defence after laying only 64 tackles to the Giants' 96. Their small forwards Tom Papley, George Hewett and Ben McGlynn had six tackles compared with the Giants' trio of Devon Smith, Steve Johnson and Toby Greene who had 17.

They cannot afford a similar discrepancy against Adelaide. North recorded 43 tackles and paid the price, conceding 21 goals.

"We have to come with a mindset to really attack and hunt the opposition and take it off them," McVeigh said. "You've got to take it off the opposition, you can't expect it to be easy to win a premiership.

"Come with a ruthless attitude every single contest and it will turn your way."

McVeigh is adamant the Swans can still win this year's flag. The bye after round 23 has diluted the impact of not having a week's rest in the finals, and playing a preliminary final at the MCG, should they win through, is not as daunting as a trip to Adelaide or Perth.

"We finished on top of the ladder for a reason: we're a good team," McVeigh said. "We lick our wounds over the next couple of days.

"I'm very confident. That's the best team we've had all year, so I'm very confident [about] what we can bounce back and do.

"A number of things [went wrong]. We weren't hard enough around the contest, our tackle pressure and effectiveness wasn't up to their standard. They ran it out of the stoppages too easily. It was the story of the night."

Perhaps the Swans were not helped by a soft finish to the season, when they won six straight games by an average margin of 59 points. Only one of those teams, North Melbourne, made the eight.

"We were cherry ripe, that had nothing to do with it. We trained well, we did everything right, we didn't play well today," McVeigh said.

"You hurt but you know you have to quickly get over it because you get another opportunity. Next week can't come quick enough."

McVeigh does not believe the pressure of September overwhelmed his team, which included six playing in their first final.

"You have to start somewhere, we all didn't play well," he said. "I don't think the occasion got to anyone."

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