SYDNEY Swans ruckman Darren Jolly has countered suggestions that his side’s tall timber will dominate their Carlton opponents by describing Matthew Kreuzer as the best young ruckman in the league.

Jolly has established himself as one of the game’s premier tap merchants in five years with the Swans and leads the league in hit-outs after three rounds.

The 27-year-old plays his 100th game for the club on Saturday (building on his 48 games with Melbourne) and said there was no chance he and Jesse White would take Kreuzer and Sam Jacobs lightly.

“Kreuzer, I really rate highly as a young bloke. He’s an up and coming [ruckman] and he moves around the ground really, really well. I’m looking forward to playing against him,” Jolly said on Friday morning.

“(Kreuzer) and (Brisbane Lion Matthew) Leuenberger are the ones to look out for in a few years time.

“I haven’t really seen much of Jacobs but the highlights I have seen, he can hold himself up pretty well so it’ll be a big job for Jesse and I to get up and play against them.”

Jolly attributed his improvement in recent years to his maturing body and the skills learned from experienced former teammates Jason Ball and Peter Everitt.

But despite his clear advantage in terms of experience, he said it was sometimes harder to play on younger ruckmen. 

“These are the ones that are a little bit harder because they fly under the radar,” Jolly said.

“They run all day, they jump around and they’ve got a bit of spring in their legs. We need to be on the ball to combat them and not let them get on top.”

Like teammate Jarrad McVeigh, Jolly predicted a torrid day at the office for the Carlton midfielders on Saturday at the SCG.

“We just need to get out there and have everyone committed to playing a hard brand of footy,” he said.

“We probably only had a handful of players last week wanting to do that and that makes it really hard for us to win. Brisbane came out and matched us and beat us in that area.

“We’re going to go out this week and make it a really hard-fought running game, which we love.”