Richmond captain Chris Newman views a bruising AFL encounter with the Swans in Sydney on Sunday as the ideal way for the Tigers to test themselves coming off a bye.

Richmond started the round in tenth, two points off eight spot, but dropped one place following St Kilda's Friday night win over the Bulldogs.

Sydney, who will remain in the top eight even if they lose on Sunday, have won their last five SCG clashes with Richmond and are coming off victories over North Melbourne and Brisbane.

Newman is the only current Tiger to have tasted victory at the venue, back in 2004, when Matthew Richardson kicked seven of the visitors' ten goals.

He said the players had taken a mental break and tried to regroup in their bye week.

"Playing the Sydney Swans at their home ground is going to be a real challenge for anyone," Newman told AAP at the SCG on Saturday.

"I think it's the best way to do it, come off the bye and play a side that's up and going and playing really well and test ourselves."

Newman said the Tigers were excited about coming to Sydney and having the opportunity to improve on their last performance against Port Adelaide.

"The note from which we left off in our last game wasn't great and the boys have been jumping out of their skins to get out there and rectify what was a pretty poor performance by us," Newman said.

"We didn't really play the way we wanted to play and didn't really get any flow into the game, so we'll be looking to do that at the SCG.

"You always know when you play Sydney, it's going to be a bruising encounter.

"I think it all starts from probably the midfield and trying to generate some footy out of the centre bounce and there's no doubt that Sydney is one of the tougher teams to beat from contested football.

"That will be our focus, we'll be looking to crash in hard and give our forwards plenty of supply."

Sydney key defender Ted Richards was wary of Richmond's attacking potential, especially with several of the Swans' wins coming in close low scoring games.

"I think their strength is their ability to score, they are fifth for points for the year, they are kicking high scores," Richards told AAP.

"We try and really keep it as tight as possible and we don't like having shootouts with teams."

Richards, who has spent most of this season at fullback is likely to spend at least part of the match on Richmond spearhead and Coleman Medal leader Jack Riewoldt.

"I've looked at a bit of footage, he does kick a lot of goals from crumbs and spillages, you've got to stop those just as much as the high balls."

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