THERE has been plenty of discussion about Hayden Ballantyne's approach to the game of late, but there is one Sydney Swan in particular who is happy the Fremantle small forward won't be playing at the SCG on Saturday.

Swans defender Alex Johnson played 21 games last year in his first season with the club and has already established a regular place in the back line.

And he is understandably pleased Ballantyne won't be lining up in the forward line when the Swans try to maintain their unbeaten start to the season following his two-game suspension from the match review panel.

"Obviously seeing the footage of him last week against Geelong, he's a great player without the niggling he does," Johnson told AFL.com.au.

"(Matthew) Scarlett obviously got too frustrated and things weren't going his way on the day and he took it out on the easiest target I guess.

"I think it's pretty good that (Ballantyne's) not playing. It just gives us an advantage because he's such a good and dangerous small forward.

"It's one less person for us to worry about."

After his impressive rookie season, Johnson already seems to have taken another step forward in 2012, adding some bulk to his 193cm frame.

He's had the ideal sparring partner throughout the pre-season - highly touted key forward Sam Reid.

"Me and Reidy are at similar points in our career - not saying that I'm better than him or he's better than me yet," Johnson joked.

"Obviously with the five-year deal he's signed he's looking pretty good at the moment.

"But it's a massive advantage if you can go like-for-like with someone on your own team.

"If I'm playing on Reidy that's the sort of player I'm looking to play on week in and week out, which is what they wanted.

"We've had a few battles on the training field, which is really beneficial for me and I assume for him as well."

Johnson has a clear fan in coach John Longmire, who loves the youngsters' versatility - and will be relying on him against Fremantle.

"He's a player that took some big jobs last year for us," Longmire said.

"Freo have got a reasonably tall forward line so you do need to make sure you have some players in there who can play some taller positions.

"Alex has been able to play on players like Mitch Clark when he was at Brisbane and also James Kelly, who is a midfielder for Geelong.

"So he's able to play on the talls and smalls because he's really aggressive.

"That's the role he'll be playing this week, playing on players of different shapes and sizes.

"They're all pretty good marks in the Fremantle forward line so he needs to be good overhead, which fortunately he is."

James Dampney covers Sydney AFL news for AFL.com.au. Follow him on Twitter: @AFL_JD