IN ROUND two against Adelaide last year, in just his second game with the Sydney Swans, small forward Ben McGlynn earned his new nickname - The Gopher.

It was a reference to the movie Caddyshack, when a gopher pops up out of holes and repeatedly thwarts actor Bill Murray's attempts to eradicate him from a golf course.

Similarly, the vertically challenge McGlynn constantly popped up virtually unmarked against the Crows, ending the game with the impressive statistics of five goals, 23 possessions, 10 marks and four tackles.

This Saturday night, McGlynn will face the Crows at AAMI Stadium for the first time since that game and is hopeful of a similar return.

"My nickname came from there, The Gopher," McGlynn told reporters ahead of training in Sydney on Thursday.

"The boys have been in to me this week as well about popping up in the sprinkler holes at AAMI Stadium.

"Hopefully that happens again, but I enjoy playing in Adelaide and hopefully we can go over there and get a win."

While McGlynn is aiming for another strong return against Adelaide, Swans coach John Longmire doubts he will go so unnoticed this time around.

Standing just 174cm, McGlynn is the Swans' leading goal-kicker in 2011 with 22 goals from 13 games.

He kicked a season-best four goals against Carlton in round six and has booted three goals in a game on four other occasions.

Longmire says the 25-year-old is now a key part of opposition teams' defensive planning.

"Nothing surprises me much about Benny McGlynn," Longmire said when asked about him leading the club's goal-kicking list.

"He's just a super competitor.

"He's almost getting the opposition's best run-with player every week now, so he's gone from the start of the year kicking regular bags of three and four to now the opposition have to look at him and match him up with their best run-with player.

"He's got a great tank, his speed is enormous, he's got great goal-kicking sense and he's really hard. He's been fantastic."

McGlynn himself is surprised to be the Swans' top goal-kicker, but he feels it is partly a product of the club's evolving forward line.

Sam Reid has shown enormous potential and solidified his place at centre half-forward, but has yet to translate that into a big bag of goals.

Adam Goodes has been a little inconsistent in front of goal, while the likes of Trent Dennis-Lane, Jesse White and Lewis Johnston have rotated through the forward line.

Against Collingwood last week they had seven goal-kickers, with Jarrad McVeigh (four goals), Goodes (three), Ryan O'Keefe and Jude Bolton (both two) all kicking multiple majors.

McGlynn believes sharing the load is key to the Swans' chances of success later in the year.

"I've been goal-less the last couple of weeks," he said.

"Sammy Reid has been stepping up and playing some good footy up there and Goodesy's getting a few scores on the board.

"It's always good to have a good mix and hopefully I can get a few this week.

"Good teams spread the load in terms of goal kickers.

"On the weekend we were a lot happier than we had been in the last few weeks."

The views in this article are those of the author and not necessarily of the clubs or the AFL.