Despite playing just his second year of AFL football, Swans defender Alex Johnson already has some handy finals experience under his belt.

The 20-year-old, who joined the club in 2011, played 20 games for the Swans in his first year, including both finals against St Kilda and Hawthorn.

This year, Johnson has continued his run, and has played in every game, including last Saturday’s 29-point Qualifying Final win over Adelaide at AAMI Stadium.

Speaking to SwansTV during the break ahead of next Friday night’s Preliminary Final at ANZ Stadium, Johnson said he was not daunted by his next finals challenge.

“I was lucky enough to play finals in my first year and played an Elimination Final and a Semi Final, so I feel like I’ve got a little bit of experience in that area, but obviously a Prelim will be the biggest game of my career so far, so I’m really excited,” he said.

“It was my 19th and 20th games last year when I played those couple of finals, so coming into last week against Adelaide I felt like I’d done it before and it felt like a routine that I could get into.

“I guess I wasn’t too nervous on the weekend, I was probably more nervous last year and made a few more mistakes, but (this year) I thought I was OK on the weekend and now I’m just looking forward to the Prelim.”

Next week’s final will be Johnson’s first home final in his short career, having played two finals in Melbourne last season and last week’s in South Australia.

Johnson said he was looking forward to playing in front of a supportive crowd, unlike the reception the team received last week in Adelaide.

“We’d spoken about the (Adelaide crowd) all week,” he said.

“I guess what we tried to do was just put the crowd out of it and silence them and whenever they kicked a goal they were up and about but when we did, it just completely went silent.

“Our fans were outnumbered by a huge number over (in Adelaide), but obviously to win and to secure that home Prelim is a massive opportunity for us and it’s just really exciting for the whole footy club.

“Next week, whether it is Collingwood or West Coast, 90 per-cent of the crowd will be red and white and all our fans can get around us and we can hopefully get the win there as well.”

The Swans will host the winner of this Saturday night’s Elimination Final between Collingwood and West Coast next Friday night.

While the Swans recent record against the Eagles is significantly better than against the Pies, Johnson said the team is not fazed about who they play next week.

“I don’t think we’re too fussed about (who we play),” he said.

“There has been a lot of talk about our record against Collingwood and the fact we’ve lost the last 11 or so, but I think finals are different and it’s a different calibre of footy.

“I think whether we come up against Collingwood or West Coast we’ll prepare as we usually would and hopefully get the win.”

Johnson added that the Swans had already proved that their style of footy could cope with finals pressure.

“I think there has been a lot of improvement just in our structures and in our game plan throughout the year,” he said.

“I think against Adelaide on the weekend we really choked them with our press and our structures really beat them, so we can take a lot of confidence out of our game plan and we’ll hopefully take that in against West Coast and Collingwood and make it into a Grand Final.”