Swans' Jack wants Crowley tag

Fremantle Dockers tagger Ryan Crowley is renowned for shutting down the best midfielders the AFL has to offer, but Sydney Swans co-captain Kieren Jack is relishing the potential of a showdown with him on Saturday night at ANZ Stadium.

Usually the prospect of Crowley hounding you all night wouldn’t be one to get too excited about, but Jack hopes they line up together at the first centre bounce.

“Oh yeah, (I’ll take) any chance to go at him and try to beat him,” Jack said.

“He’s a niggly sort of player and he tries to get under your skin a fair bit, like a few of their players, but you can’t be distracted by it and can’t let it get yourself off your own game.”

It may take a team effort from the Swans to deal with Crowley and the physical Fremantle midfield, Jack admitting a tough day could ensue in a battle with Crowley.

“You enjoy the challenge,” he said. “He’s a quality stopper.

“If he comes to you, you know you’re going to be in for a tough day and you have to work hard to get on top.

“But you also need some help. Whoever he goes to, we’ll look to help that player out.”

While Jack might not mind the attention from Crowley, he doesn’t want or expect to get the job on returning Fremantle midfielder Nat Fyfe.

Fyfe, who will be fresh after two weeks on the sidelines for his off-the-ball contact with Hawthorn’s Jordan Lewis, is expected to poll most votes in the Brownlow Medal despite being ineligible.

“He’s a unique player, he’s tall and can overhead mark and I’ve played him a couple of times, but he’s too bloody tall for me,” Jack quipped.

Fyfe isn’t the only challenge for Sydney – an up and about Freo forward line has been running hot of late with pocket rockets Hayden Ballantyne and Michael Walters leading the way.

Jack highlighted them as big dangers.

“Those two I think are probably the barometers for them,” Jack said.

“Niggly sort of players. It will be a tough ask for our small defenders or quick defenders that are going to match up on them.

“But we’ve got confidence that we’ve got the players to stop them.”

With ANZ Stadium being the venue and Fremantle coach Ross Lyon a noted non-fan of the surface, Jack is confident the ground will hold up.

“We’ve been assured it’s going to be in much better condition and we know it will be,” Jack said.

“We’ve played big games there before. We played a final there against Collingwood (in 2012), amazing atmosphere, so we hope it will be exactly the same again.”

Jack also hopes the crowd will bring the noise at the cavernous venue, admitting the Swans were intimidated by the vocal and passionate crowd Fremantle had at Patersons Stadium during a loss in last season’s finals campaign.

“They ambushed us in that first half,” Jack said.

“It was a hostile environment, the crowd was going nuts; it was intimidating.

“We need to get one back and we hope that our crowd can create a similar sort of environment to them.”