ADAM Goodes has heard the whispers about his form, but the dual Brownlow medallist is comfortable with how he is tracking and can't wait to lead the Sydney Swans into battle against Adelaide on Saturday.

Goodes missed five games earlier in the season with a torn quad, plus the round four clash with North Melbourne due to suspension, and has lacked his usual spark since returning to the side.

But there have been encouraging signs in recent weeks, with the 32-year-old kicking seven goals and averaging just under 19 disposals and eight marks over his past three games.

Despite his time on the sidelines, Goodes has still kicked 32 goals from 16 games, second only at the club to Lewis Jetta's 40 for the year, ahead of this week's qualifying final at AAMI Stadium.

Asked if he felt he hadn't recaptured his best since the longest injury layoff of his 316-game career, Goodes replied: "That's what everybody's saying.

"I know that within [the club] I'm not getting any pressure from coaches or players about my form.

"On the weekend [against Geelong] it was good to run around and play on a bigger ground like we're going to be playing on in Adelaide this week and I feel like I'm up and about.

"It doesn't matter what happened in the past 23 weeks, we've got two finals games guaranteed, and I'm looking forward to leading the boys out there and getting a couple of victories."

There were some positive signs on the injury front on Tuesday, with Sam Reid (glute) and Nick Smith (hamstring) both training well.

Smith took part in virtually all of the session, while Reid worked on his goal kicking and also had a searching battle with Shane Mumford in rucking and in contested marking.

If both get through the club's main training session on Thursday, they will return to the side to take on the Crows.

Goodes can also take confidence from the last time he met the Crows, kicking five goals in the five-point defeat, although that was also the match when he sustained his quad injury.

While he was damaging as a forward in that game, he may also need to spend time helping a midfield that managed just 41 inside 50s to Geelong's 71 last weekend.

His coach John Longmire is backing Goodes to fill a variety of roles on Saturday.

"I think Adam's last game here against Adelaide was pretty good, he kicked five and played well as a forward," he said.

"But Adam is always going to play his best playing a number of different roles."

The coach also believed the midfield was where the game would be won and lost and had a quick response when asked if Patrick Dangerfield was one player his side would need to contain.

"Yeah he sure is," he said. "If you look at Dangerfield, [Scott] Thompson, [Sam] Jacobs, they're probably three starters in an All Australian midfield.

"They've got some absolute quality and class in that part of the ground.

"That is our biggest challenge this week, making sure we reduce their input and their influence, but also making sure we play the sort of footy we want to play from the midfield area in particular.

"We think our midfield has been pretty good over the course of the year and that's where the game will be determined."

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