Sydney coach John Longmire has spoken to ruckman Shane Mumford about the controversial tackling technique that has landed him in hot water with the AFL and forced him to miss two more games.

Mumford has been suspended for four games over the last one-and-a-half seasons after being hit with a couple of rough conduct charges for slinging tackles.

He missed two games in his breakout season last year following an incident involving Gary Ablett in a round seven clash with Geelong.

Back in the Swans' side against Carlton last weekend after three matches out with a knee issue, Mumford accepted a two-match ban for an incident which resulted in Carlton's David Ellard being sent to hospital for scans after suffering concussion from a heavy Mumford tackle.

"Mummy is obviously a critical player for us, it's disappointing when you lose him for three weeks with injury and he comes back, plays his first game and then he's going to miss another couple," Longmire told reporters on Thursday.

"We need to speak to him about his tackling technique and we have because obviously the game is telling us that injury in particular is a big part in what happens at the match review panel.

We speak to our players about it, certainly Shane is aware of it.

We need to make sure that the challenge for the players is to have the mentality of tackling effectively, but knowing full well if you get them to ground and they hit their head that you could be in a bit of trouble."

Mumford's suspension meant the Sydney match committee was spared the task of debating whether to again include both him Mark Seaby in their 22-man squad.

Only twice this season have Sydney included both Mumford and Seaby in their lineup, with the latter used only as a substitute in the round one game against Melbourne.

With Mumford unavailable, forward-ruckman Jesse White was chosen in the team to face Collingwood at ANZ Stadium on Saturday.

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