Swans coach John Longmire has suggested a ruck rotation strategy could be an option for the Swans this season to help counter specific opponents.

Longmire said the process of matching his groups’ skills to opposition ruckmen could be an effective tactic to win the ruck contest each week.

“I think even more and more now we’ll see rucks played for specific opposition,” he said.

“A Paddy Ryder is going to be different to Aaron Sandilands and how you ruck against that is going to be different tactics.

“You won’t just go in and play these two ruckman for the next six weeks no matter what, then someone else just might come in. You need a team of ruckman and using their various strengths to counteract opposition ruckman.

"We'd like to get to that stage where we are looking at teams and saying 'OK, well the opposition have got this type of ruckmen, maybe we're best suited with this type of player', even though he hasn't played the previous week."

The Swans have no shortage of quality ruck stocks, with Shane Mumford, Mark Seaby, Mike Pyke, Lewis Roberts-Thomson and Jesse White all in the mix to line up in the middle and around the ground.

Longmire said the traditional role of the ruckman has changed, and said those playing in the ruck are now required to have a variety of skills.

“It’s a big load that they’ve got - primarily the main ruckman who is playing generally 70 per cent of the game time on ball, compared to 50 per cent a couple of years ago,” he said.

“The other important part is that they are playing forward and the second ruck is playing 70 per cent forward, so they’ve got to be either marking or kicking goals or putting pressure on or creating contests in our forward half."

Shane Mumford said he has experienced the change in his role in the ruck over the last few seasons.

“My role has changed a fair bit. Even when I was at Geelong three to four years ago you’d go on and the ruckman would be resting on the bench, so there was no going forward, it was basically about playing your five or ten minutes in the ruck and then going back to the bench again,” Mumford told sydneyswans.com.au.

“I like it though. Being out there longer means you’re obviously going to have more of an impact on the game and I’ve had to change fitness wise and have had to be able to run for longer due to the fact I am out there for longer.

“I think last year I jumped up an extra 20 minutes in game time, so I really had to step things up a bit.”

Mumford said the ruck group complete weekly research on their opposition to formulate a plan on how to match them on game day.

“Basically you need to do your research each week,” he said.

“You need to know who you’re coming up against and know what their strengths and weaknesses are, whether they jump right foot or left foot, the best way of stopping them to be able to hit it where they want to go.

“That’s something we’re made to do every week, a bit of research here and there and we also normally sit down as a ruck group and talk about what we’ve seen and the best way of beating our opponent.”