The veteran defender has been Sydney's ever-present invisible man this season, embracing the defensive dark arts to shut down key opposition forwards week after week.

He has played every game in 2016 and missed only once in the past four seasons. But he has an uncanny knack of staying out of the spotlight, which often settles on younger defenders Aliir Aliir, All-Australian Dane Rampe or Rising Star Callum Mills.

Opposition forwards hate looking down the Swans team sheet and seeing Grundy listed at centre half forward.

Just ask Geelong big man Tom Hawkins, who managed just 10 touches and a goal in his side's crushing preliminary final loss on Friday night.

Hawkins actually did pretty well compared with Grundy's other finals victims this season.

Josh Jenkins of Adelaide and Jonathon Patton for GWS both failed to kick a single goal on the 30-year-old Swan.

"I've had some tough jobs the last couple of weeks," Grundy said. "It's nice to be in good form at this time of the year. I'm not one of those flashy types, I guess. I just do my job and if we come out on top that's the main thing and a positive for me.

"You've got to have a good balance of being able to defend when you have to, and getting the ball as well and help on the offence as much as defence."

Grundy, a veteran of 212 AFL games, started his career in the forward line before being shifted down back.

Over time he has honed his defensive skills – intercept marking, tackling, spoiling and smothering in among the darker arts that go unnoticed, the arts that separate good defenders from greats, that let him dominate taller and heavier opponents.

The arts that often leave Grundy and his opponent with black eyes and other bumps and bruises at the final siren. The arts the Swans have summoned superbly all season as the league's most miserly defensive unit, which gives up just 68 points a game.

Supporting Grundy every step of the way this year has been Rampe, who hasn't missed a game, and Nick Smith, who has played in all but one match this season.

Rampe often takes the second opposition tall forward, while Smith tends to shut down the most dangerous small forward.

"He's been unbelievable, Ramps. His last couple of years have been really solid, but this year he's gone to another level," Grundy said.

"He's probably one of the best one-on-one defenders in the competition, with his speed. He's starting to get his hands on the ball and get it going the other way, which has been one of his strengths this year. He has been crucial for us.

"Nick's one of those players that you can rely on every week. He has been solid all year and in the finals series he has been one of our best players, he has really stood out.

"Against GWS, where we struggled, he was probably our best player. I'd expect him to go well this week."

The Bulldogs have one of the shorter forward lines in the competition, with former GWS youngster Tom Boyd at 200 centimetres the tallest opponent for the Sydney defence this weekend.

They're also short on grand final experience. None of the Bulldogs have contested an AFL decider, while 13 of the Swans likely to run out on Saturday featured in the 2014 grand final flogging by Hawthorn.

"That's a couple of years ago now, so we've got to move on from that, which we did. I think we addressed it pretty well straight after the game," Grundy said.

"We were very disappointed and we've got to be ready to go this week."