Sydney Swans defender Ted Richards is looking forward to Kurt Tippett finally being someone else's problem when the key forward makes his debut for the club against Port Adelaide on Saturday.

Richards and fellow key back Heath Grundy have had the task of trying to defend the 202cm, 104kg Tippett in practice sessions over the opening half of the season while he served his suspension.

He will finally be unleashed on the opposition at AAMI Stadium, with Port's Tom Jonas already stating he would like to have first crack at marking the former Crow.

Richards agreed it was a relief to hand the task to someone else.

"You're exactly right," he told reporters ahead of training at the SCG.

"It definitely has been a bit of a change-up in intra-club practice games when I've got to man up this massive unit."

Tippett will have to shake off some rust, having not played since Adelaide's preliminary final loss to Hawthorn on September 22 last year.

But Richards feels the 26-year-old has had plenty of time to learn the Swans' game-plan and won't alter the team structure too much.

"It's really funny in that someone who has been out for so long hasn't been injured," Richards said.

"So he's been at every training session since early December and more often than not when it comes to match simulation, myself or Heath Grundy are playing on him.

"So I've probably seen how he's been going closer than most and even though he hasn't been in the team on weekends, he's been part of training sessions and match simulation throughout the week.

"We've still had key targets down there, whether it be Sam Reid, LRT (Lewis Roberts-Thomson), even Goodesy.

"But for it to be such a high-profile key forward, we've never had so much attention and focus in a new recruit since I've been here.

"We're really excited that he finally gets his chance to play."

While Tippett comes into the side, there remains extreme doubt over some other key Swans.

Reid (quad) only took part in handball drills wearing runners before the media was turned away from Thursday's session, while Lewis Jetta (shin) sat in the stands and took no part in training at all.

Jetta's injury means Brandon Jack could feature in his second career game after making his debut against Adelaide before the Swans' bye.

The premiers were heralded for their scintillating brand of football in wins over Collingwood, Essendon and the Crows, but Richards still felt the break came at a good time.

The All Australian defender is hopeful there will be an extra bye included in the schedule in 2014.

"You might look at it from that perspective that we did have some momentum, but at the same time it's been a pretty intense first half of the season," he said.

"A lot of the guys, myself included, really looked forward to the bye.

"We've been going pretty much since the NAB Cup games in late Feb, early March.

"I think next year there's a chance two byes might come in and that'll be even better."