Swans coach John Blakey, who looks after the defensive half, provides his take on Saturday night's semi-final against his old mob North Melbourne as part of this week's Cellarbrations Coaches Column.

First of all, you're probably sick of talking about it but, Lance Franklin and Sam Reid...how much of a loss are those two?

Obvious we acknowledge they're very good players and we'd like to have them in the side, but reality is we don't and there's not much we can do about it so we don't worry about it.

Our job is to move on quickly and construct a forward line capable of kicking goals.

And I think we've covered injuries pretty well throughout the season and we need to do it again on Saturday night against the Kangas.

We're very confident with the players that'll be out on the field that they'll be able to generate a winning score.

Combatting North's ruckman in Todd Goldstein will important. Did you toy with the idea of bringing in another ruckman to allow Kurt Tippett to spend more time up forward? Because without Riedy and Buddy, we're going to need one...

We always look at the many different options available to us.

The facts are Tippo has been really good in the ruck this season so the combination of Tippo and Mike Pyke is important.

Obviously both of those guys will spend time forward so we think the combination of that should give us enough to combat Goldstein, who has been a really good player for them, and provide us with marking targets up forward.

Goodesy spent a good chunk of time in the midfield last weekend and performed really well. He will also be handy up forward. How will you use Goodesy?

That's another option available to us. How we use our players is dependent on how the game is going.

If we're having trouble through the midfield we might have to throw Goodesy in there, if we have to score we might have to leave Goodesy down there. The combination will vary on how we're going, what's working for us and what's not working for us.

It's important for us to have players who are able to adapt to different positions. We all know Goodesy, when we threw him in the midfield in the absence of Luke Parker and Kieren Jack, he performed really well for us but we also know he's capable iof kicking goals.

You've got Gary Rohan and Isaac Heeney up there who are both capable of kicking goals so, throw Tippo in there as well, we think we can construct a forward line that's able to kick a score.

Having said that if we need to move those guys around in different spots we're able to adjust accordingly.

Do you go in targeting a certain player in such a big game or do we back ourselves in?

At the end of the day you can't narrow the focus on just one player, you have to shut the whole side down.

They've got a talented forward line with three big talls and plenty of talented smalls while their midfield is strong with the likes of Jack Ziebell, Ben Cunnington and Andrew Swallow.

It's going to be, as good finals footy should be, a battle of the midfield. Whoever can win get on top and get more supply to their forward line will win. Hopefully we can win that battle.

We've got some incredibly talented midfielders who are in terrific form like Joey Kennedy, Dan Hannebery and Tommy Mitchell, they're all great at ground level and can float forward.

They've got enormous jobs to combat the Kangas' brigade but we're confident that that their strengths can overpower them. So, when you ask whether we tag anyone, we're backing our mids to get the job done.

I couldn't let you go without asking you about the defensive half. Nick Smith's inclusion is a timely one. How much of a boost is Smooch's return?

It's terrific to have Smooch back in the side; he's such an important cog within that back half.

We could have done with him last weekend. Hayden Ballantyne and Michael Walters kicked six goals between them last week so with Nick Smith there he's got this great ability to stop the opposition's best small forwards.

We're pleased to have him back in the side. He's been a mainstay of our backline for many years now so the players know what to expect from him and he's also able to give some really good direction to others around him.