Fremantle senior coach Justin Longmuir believes beating the Swans will take more than just shutting down one or two of their star players. 

Speaking at his Tuesday morning media conference ahead of the much-anticipated top-of-the-table clash on Thursday night, Longmuir said locking down Isaac Heeney or Chad Warner simply wouldn’t be the sole solution to winning. 

“You can't lock down on everyone,” Longmuir said. 

“You’ve got to trust your players that you've got out there, and you trust your system as well.

“It'll be a balance. You mentioned two of their players, but we've also got (Charlie) Curnow, who's had an outstanding year, (Brodie) Grundy in the ruck, (Nick) Blakey. 

“They’ve got good players all over the ground. (Errol) Gulden has come back into that side. 

“It’s a balance between stopping individuals and trying to stop a system, so we'll strike that balance.” 

Asked specifically about the ruck duel against in-form big man Grundy, who is coming off a 60-hit-out performance in Round 17, Longmuir said he and his team would look at the possible combinations following Tuesday’s main training session.

“We'll have a discussion later about the mix we go with,” Longmuir said. 

“I think Sean (Darcy)’s work’s been strong, so naturally against Grundy the physicality aspect of Sean's ruck work holds up well. 

“But we'll look at that, we haven't decided who's going to play. 

“Luke (Jackson) is our number one ruck, we back Luke in the ruck, and if we feel like we're getting more benefit with Luke being elsewhere, or someone else being in the ruck, we’ll adjust the ruck split as we go.” 

Fremantle and Sydney will clash at Optus Stadium on Thursday 9 July at 6.10 pm WST.