Sydney's players must reinvigorate tired bodies this week while at the same time ensure their minds are not lulled by notions of facing a lame Western Bulldogs line-up at the MCG on Saturday night.

The Swans were a sore but happy bunch on Monday at SCG headquarters after a narrow win over Carlton, leaving coach Paul Roos to forecast a decidedly light week of training.

But he counselled his men not to be caught up in predictions of impending doom for the Bulldogs, who over the past month have dropped away dramatically in form following a series of events including illness, injuries and the adventures of Jason Akermanis.

As often happens, the Swans are considered an exceptional chance to defeat the 'Dogs and go on to the preliminary final after a first-up finals win, but history is littered with teams who floundered in much the same circumstances.

"We certainly still think they've got enough quality players to do some damage in the finals and we've got to play as well as we've done for three quarters yesterday, and if we play like we did in the third we'll really struggle," said Roos.

"Top four means you've clearly been better than the fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth team in the competition, so we need to make up the gap.

"It's not the Bulldogs (who do), if the Bulldogs play their best, their best has been better than ours."

The question of whether the Bulldogs are capable of finding their best without Adam Cooney or Dale Morris and with an ageing Brad Johnson on the verge of retirement is a difficult one, and the Swans have the advantage of knowing they crunched the same team just three weeks ago.

But Sydney will be occupied by freshening the legs of players who appeared out on their feet entering the last quarter against the Blues, only to find enough energy to surge at the last.

"I think you can get up (after a tough game) at this time of year, you're not looking for fitness and you're just looking to recover early in the week," said Roos.

"Then maybe later in the week we'll train for maybe 30-40 minutes so I don't have any fears about that."

Coaching and fitness staff continue to ponder the fitness of attacking pair Daniel Bradshaw and Ben McGlynn, both of whom could be considered to face the Bulldogs.

McGlynn is thought to be a more likely inclusion, though the thought of adding a spearhead to a forward line already flushed with pace is attractive to Roos.

"It is the sort of time of the year where we'll need (Bradshaw) to play 100 odd minutes, so that's the biggest thing," he said.

"If he feels like he can do that, we'd probably pull the trigger on him and play.

"But if he's got some doubt in his own mind as to whether he can stand up, it'll probably be an easy decision.

"Benny's different, he's a very fit player and he's already been running for a week and a half."

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