SYDNEY Swans veteran Rhyce Shaw is a keen student of the AFL and has closely monitored the progress of the Gold Coast Suns in their first season in the League.

The Swans will make their first trip to Metricon Stadium on Saturday night and are widely tipped to have a comfortable win over the newcomers.

But Shaw, who is playing his 12th AFL season, is wary.

"It's going to be a good challenge," he said on Friday.

"I think they've been playing some pretty good footy, even though they haven't been winning as much as they would've hoped.

"I think some people underestimate how good these kids are.

"They've got so many top 10 draft picks or first-round draft picks, and they don't come around all the time.

"When you've got five or six or whatever they had in one side, it's a pretty talented group.

"And they've got leaders like Gary (Ablett) and Michael Rischitelli and Josh Fraser, who have been around for a while, so they can only go in the right direction."

If there is one Gold Coast player the Swans need to watch, it is Ablett.

During his time with Geelong, Ablett simply destroyed the Swans. In his past five games against them, the Brownlow medallist averaged 35.6 possessions, 2.4 goals and five tackles.

Ablett polled 14 out of a possible 15 Brownlow votes and the Cats won all five games.

Shaw, who has been playing more of a tagging role in 2011, could be used to try to limit Ablett's influence, although he was coy about the possibility.

"That could be the case," Shaw said.

"I've played a few shut-down roles this year. It could be him or one of the other guys or I might have to go back this week.

"Obviously he's a really important player for them and whoever does get the job on him will need to be at their best because he's a fantastic player.

"He's played some unbelievable football this year and to all the doubters that doubted him going up there and whether he could play the sort of footy he's been playing over the last six or seven years, he's really shut them up."

Kieren Jack is another player who coach John Longmire could use on Ablett and Shaw was the latest Swan to welcome his return from an ankle injury this week, along with ruckman Shane Mumford.

"It's fantastic to have him (Jack) back; he's a really important player for us in the midfield," Shaw said.

"He provides that grunt and he's quick and he can go forward as well and kick goals which is really important for us at the moment.

"With big Mummy back as well it's really good for us; he's really important in terms of his ruck work and his attack on the pill afterwards is second to none."

While Shaw takes his football seriously, he also tries to lighten the mood around the playing group from time to time.

Before training this week, Shaw emerged from the change room with tape around his head and his shorts pulled up high ahead of a passing drill.

It was a reference to rugby league and this week's State of Origin decider, when NSW fell in a 24-0 hole in the first half en route to a 34-24 defeat and a sixth straight series loss to Queensland.

"It was a bit of a muck around. I was just geeing the boys up a bit before Origin," Shaw said.

"Hopefully we can come out a bit better than the NSW Blues.

"I've been around footy a long time and you get in periods where you're not playing so good or the team's not going too well.

"We've lost three games in a row now and sometimes you have to do something a bit different.

"That's what I was trying to do, just a bit of light-hearted fun and hopefully in some little way it might've helped."