Sydney's pressure forwards have escaped the wrath of coach John Longmire at selection despite the coach labelling the Swans' tackling effort last week as their worst for the year.

The Swans believe their woes from the qualifying final humbling can be solved if they roll their sleeves up and rediscover the team defence that has been the side's trademark in the last decade.

Longmire places great emphasis on tackling but such was the inferior opposition the Swans faced leading into the finals they did not need to excel in this area to win. In fact, they won the tackle count only once in the last seven games of their home and away season, during which they had a 6-1 win-loss record. Their differential of -32 proved costly against the Giants, who sliced through their press with ease.

There was, however, no retribution from the Swans' match committee, whose only two changes were enforced. As expected, ruckman Toby Nankervis comes in to make his finals debut for the injured Kurt Tippett while Jeremy Laidler replaces the hamstrung Callum Mills.

Small forwards Ben McGlynn and Tom Papley were given the chance to atone despite the Swans having identified the ease at which the Giants were able to rebound from their defensive 50 as a key factor in last week's loss. The pair along with George Hewett and Isaac Heeney laid eight tackles between them compared to their Giants' counterparts – Devon Smith, Toby Greene, Steve Johnson and Jacob Hopper – who had 20. Papley, who kicked his two goals in the first 15 minutes of the game, did not lay a tackle at all.

"We'd like a bit more pressure in our front half," Longmire said. "Around the ball we felt it was our effectiveness around that part of the ground as far as putting enormous pressure on the opposition. They were able to get some clean ball round there which they don't normally do.

"We were disappointed with our lack of effective tackles – both the number of tackles and lack of effectiveness in the tackle.

"It was probably our worst result for the year in regards to amount of missed tackles, normally it's a real strength of ours.

"We're really confident we can get the pressure around the ball in a lot better manner and a lot more effective manner than we did last week."

The Swans also struggled in attack, managing only seven goals from 57 entries inside 50. It has prompted heavy criticism of Longmire for not playing Lance Franklin closer to goal. Franklin was one of the Swans' best but was held goalless after spending long periods roaming across the midfield.

"We've been working on getting enormous pressure around the ball," Longmire said.

"If we get enormous pressure around the ball and effective pressure around the ball generally we work better going both ways."

If they do not, they are set for a long night at the office against an Adelaide team regarded as having the best forward arsenal in the competition. Their five main forwards – Taylor Walker, Eddie Betts, Josh Jenkins, Tom Lynch and Mitch McGovern – have all kicked 30 goals or more this year. Franklin is the only Swan past this mark.

"We know if you get the ball into their forward half with the talent in their front half you can cause any team headaches no matter where they play," Longmire said.

"That's why the midfield pressure battle is always a critical one, particularly when you have an opposition forward line stacked with so many talented players. You need to make sure those entries you do get have more pressure around them than what we did last week."