Sydney co-captain Leo Barry believes the Western Bulldogs' recent poor form means little as his side heads into Friday night's AFL semi-final at the MCG as "underdogs".

The Bulldogs have lost six of their last eight matches, including last week's 51-point hiding at the hands of Hawthorn, but Barry is wary the Bulldogs could turn their wretched run of form around just as quickly as the Swans have.

"We are under no disillusion (sic) it's going to be a really tough game and we're going to have to be at our best," Barry said.

"I think we showed a couple of weeks ago that you can turn it around pretty quickly."

Sydney have bounced back to register morale-boosting wins over North Melbourne and Brisbane in the past two weeks but Barry refuses to talk up the Swans' hopes of toppling the struggling Bulldogs.

"There's no pressure on us on Friday night, probably no one expects us to win, but we're really excited about the finals campaign and we reckon we can certainly shake it up," Barry said.

Tadhg Kennelly echoed his teammate's 'underdog' assertion and said the Swans would be stupid to underestimate the fire-power of a team that finished third on the ladder.

"I suppose they are (struggling) but they're going to get back to the footy that's gotten them in to the top four and that's a contested brand of football," Kennelly said.

"They've copped it all week...and the best way to answer it is to come back and play good hard contested football and that's what got them into the top four.

"...We still go in with the confidence that we have the game plan and the experience to win it."

The Bulldogs and the Swans have met twice this season and on both occasions the Bulldogs have come up trumps but Sydney head into Friday's do-or-die clash with momentum on their side.

Barry said the Swans have learnt from the past two defeats and will be looking to smother the 'Dogs ability to pile on the points.

"We played ok in those games but their ability to score heavily was a bit of an issue for us," he said.

"They move the ball really well and our pressure through the midfield will probably be the key to our game.

"I think our forward line will really test them. We've really got some height in our forward line and the form that we have shown over the last two weeks in particular might stress them a bit.

"We've certainly gained a lot of confidence over the last couple of weeks and probably one of the goods things is Hally (Barry Hall) is playing really well, Goodesy (Adam Goodes) is contributing extremely well and our midfield group through Jude Bolton and Brett Kirk are playing good footy."

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