Sydney midfielder Jude Bolton believes Collingwood ruckman Darren Jolly's first game against his former AFL club could play into the Swans' hands - literally.

Accustomed to roving the 2005 Sydney premiership ruckman's taps, Bolton said the Swans' on-ball brigade would benefit at ANZ Stadium on Saturday night from knowing where Jolly likes to palm the ball.

Having reviewed the Magpies' midfield work this season, Bolton said Jolly seemed to have introduced some of the same set-ups he used in Sydney.

"We do our midfield edits and things like that and go through our tapes of Collingwood and they're obviously a very similar style to us, in terms of that, because of Jolls' influence over the midfield group," Bolton said.

"Just watching that, they have some similar set-ups, so we'll hopefully know what to expect on the weekend."

Jolly acknowledged that issue, but added he was smart enough to plan around it.

"It would be silly of me to come all the way to Collingwood and bring the same things that we did in Sydney, because they'll just know straight away," he said.

"But we've changed a few things, as I'm sure they've changed a few things."

He expected to use some inside knowledge of his own, particularly against Sydney's second ruckman Mike Pyke, the former Canadian rugby international whose AFL development Jolly helped mould.

"I did mentor him in a sense, we would talk all the time about ruckwork and footy and I tried to teach him everything I knew," he said.

"It will be interesting, because he knows exactly what I like to do and I know exactly what he likes to do."

The Swans will be desperate for some sort of edge, having lost the two clubs' past eight meetings.

Jolly knew first-hand how much that would be motivating Sydney.

"They do put a lot of work into trying to beat Collingwood, because it has been (five) years, so we're ready for that and we know what to expect, it's going to be a hard contest."

Bolton said Sydney had a few fresh tactics in mind.

He said they were desperate to down a highly-ranked side, with all seven of their wins against sides currently in the bottom eight, and their five losses against clubs in the top eight.

"We just want to take one of those scalps and certainly Collingwood are right up there and they've been playing some great footy this year and we'd love to beat them," he said.

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