FOR A fleeting moment in Sunday's frantic final term at ANZ Stadium, Trent Dennis-Lane's thoughts drifted back to memories of taking carefree potshots at goal with his mates.

A desperate diving tackle on Carlton defender Dennis Armfield had earned the first-year Sydney Swan a shot at goal from an acute angle.

The Swans led the elimination final by just six points with only a few minutes to play, and more than 40,000 rabid home fans were willing Dennis-Lane to split the middle.

It was heady stuff for a 22-year-old in just his seventh senior game and he couldn't help but marvel at taking centre stage in such a moment.

"It's kind of like [being] down at the park with your mates when you're 10 years old - there's two seconds left, you're five points down, this is for the win," he said.

"You do that stuff when you're young but when it happens in real life… I don't know, I was trying not to think about that stuff too much and stick to my processes.

"If I did all that right, hopefully the result was going to take care of itself."

With some typically pragmatic advice from fellow forward Jarred Moore ringing in his ears - 'Just make sure you score' - Dennis-Lane strode towards goal, opted for a drop punt ahead of the riskier banana and let years of practice do the rest.

"I was nervous, but I've got a pretty set goalkicking routine so I just made sure I went back and followed that," he said.

"I was walking in going 'drop punt, banana, I dunno'. I've got a natural left to right (drift) with my kicking so I thought if I started it at the left post, it should go through and luckily it did."

After a knee injury hampered his start to the season, Dennis-Lane now has 16 goals from his past five games, establishing himself as a dangerous medium-sized marking option in the Swans' forward line.

With a light frame better suited to dodging opposition defenders than splitting packs, the West Australian native said he prided himself on making the most of the chances that fell to him.

He said he was starting to feel more comfortable at senior level, and felt his more experienced teammates were also more accustomed to having him in the side.

"I'm starting to slot in nicely, starting to figure out where the space is and where to work and I'm getting used to the players in the seniors. I think they're starting to get a little bit used to me as well," he said.

"You come in and you're a new face; they hit you a couple of times and if you put their hard work on the scoreboard, I reckon they tend to look for you a bit more."

And while the euphoria of the thrilling win over the Blues was still evident an hour after the final siren, Dennis-Lane said the Swans would quickly turn their attention to this Saturday night's semi-final against the Western Bulldogs at the MCG.

"It's pretty easy to refocus because if you don't, come half time, the game will be out of reach," he said.

"If we don't refocus, it's another six months before we can even start to build to where we were today."