Geelong tagger Cameron Ling knows he'll be in for a tough night if, as expected, he's assigned the task of nullifying Collingwood's midfield gun Dane Swan in Saturday night's preliminary final.
Swan has turned in the best season of his seven-year career in 2009, averaging a tick over 31 touches a game and booting goals in 16 of his 24 matches to be second favourite for next week's Brownlow Medal, while his efforts have already been recognised with his maiden All-Australian jumper earlier this week.
And with Swan having become such a key member of the Magpies' line-up this season, Ling said before training on Thursday that minimising Swan's influence on the game will go a long way to helping the Cats advance to their third grand final in succession.
"He's had a fantastic year and I dare say he'll be a chance on Monday night to take the Brownlow home," Ling said. "He's just a terrific footballer."
"He's got the tatts and gets around the park but he's just got a fantastic footy brain and I suppose if he's allowed to play his natural game he can really help his team to play some good footy."
"He's a hard runner and he's also footy smart. You can put up with blokes who just junk run and can't find the footy but with Dane Swan he just can constantly get the ball and constantly hurt you and this year I think he's added kicking goals to his game which makes him even more damaging."
"He's a fantastic footballer and I rate him very highly. I don't know if I'll get him yet, that's up to Bomber (coach Mark Thompson), but I know if I do I'll certainly have my hands full."
Ling won't focus all of his attention on Swan on Saturday night though because he knows a team that also contains the likes of Alan Didak and Scott Pendlebury - who remains a long shot to play as he recovers from a broken leg - can cause plenty of headaches.
"But he (Swan) gets a lot of help in that midfield too, there's some quality players like Didak and Pendlebury if he does play," Ling added.
"Their guys are just good quality footballers and they play the game the right way."
"They play good hard contested footy so we know that we're going to be in for a battle against the whole Magpies team."
As for the pre-match build-up that has seen Thompson play down a newspaper column from his Pies counterpart Mick Malthouse suggesting all the pressure is on the Cats, Ling said he and his team-mates haven't taken any notice.
"(From the) players' point of view we have just let it go, Mick and Bomber are both entitled to say whatever they feel like saying," he said.
"There's always a little bit of banter in the media between the coaches so that's up to them it's nothing to do with the players."
"Personally I haven't read the whole article I've just caught snippets of it (but) it hasn't even been mentioned in the playing group and it doesn't bother me it's all part of the build-up I suppose."