The day before he makes his official AFL debut for Sydney, Rhyce Shaw caught himself looking at the Collingwood team first in the newspaper.

It was an understandable slip-up by a player whose father Ray is a former Magpies captain and brother Heath still plays for the club.

Before his trade north, Rhyce played 94 games for the Magpies and his life had been black and white.

But Shaw admits he is surprised by how easily he settled into his new club.

Shaw has shown solid pre-season form and will be Sydney's only new player on Saturday night when they meet St Kilda at Etihad Stadium.

"It's a bit different - looking in the (newspaper) this morning, I actually looked at the Collingwood team before the Sydney team," he said.

"The initial thoughts were that it would have been a bit hard for me to leave Collingwood and get out of that environment.

"But coming up to Sydney, it's been fantastic, the boys have been really good and it's a great environment to play footy and get on with your life.

"It hasn't been too hard at all, actually, it's been easy - I'm pretty surprised."

At the end of last season, Shaw and Collingwood agreed to part, with the player admitting he felt stale.

A few weeks earlier, he had received a two-match club ban for drinking excessively while injured.

Rejuvenated by the change of colours and city, Shaw settled quickly into Sydney's "Bloods" culture and their accountable style of play.

Tadgh Kennelly's retirement also guaranteed him regular selection on a half-back flank.

"It will be a range of roles, it will be a week-to-week thing, but I think it will be mainly a similar role to what I played at Collingwood, half-back and a wing," he said.

In the buildup to round one, coach Paul Roos said he was worried about whether the older Swans could maintain the fanatical workrate that has defined his era at the club.

But Shaw says those experienced Swans had shown during the pre-season they still have plenty of "grunt" left.

"We're looking in really good shape at the moment, the older guys that Roosy was talking about have put in good pre-seasons," Shaw said.

"I was actually surprised coming here - I thought maybe they'd be looked after a little bit, but they got flogged just as much as everyone else.

"They've done really well and hopefully our experience will be in our favour against the Saints, we get the four points."

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