SYDNEY coach Dean Cox has suggested the "strange" AFL draw may need a reconsideration as he gets set to face his former side West Coast for the first time as a senior coach in the final round of the season.

The Swans face the wooden spooners on Saturday night for the first time this season, just a week after they played Geelong for the first time in 2025, having played six clubs twice already this year.

While Cox stopped short of making any excuses for Sydney's failure to make the eight, an earlier clash against the one-win Eagles may have helped keep them in the finals race for longer.

"Yeh it is different. I understand trying to get all 18 teams, interstate teams, into a schedule is tough to do," he said.

"But it is strange that we play two teams for the first time in our last two games when we've played six teams twice.

"That's something that Tom (Harley) upstairs can have a look at when moves to the AFL (as the new Chief Operating Officer)."

The West Coast premiership player remains wary of being the victims of just a second Eagles win this season when he coaches against the club that he became a legend at for the first time.

Cox has implored the Swans to make amends for the disappointing manner in which they faded in the second half against the Cats on Sunday.

"They've got to have pride in their performance. That was one thing we spoke about post the Geelong game; for the last quarter and a half, we didn’t have that," Cox said.

"We need to finish off as well as we can. We don't touch on where they sit on the ladder. We looked at them really closely against Adelaide. In the last two weeks they've pressured as well as any team in the competition."

Star ruck Brodie Grundy is set to return from a week out with concussion as the Swans look to end the year on a high, with exit meetings to take place early next week before players go on their end of season break.

The future of veteran Dane Rampe remains up in the air, but he seems more likely than not to play on for another year, with a re-selection via the rookie list possible.

While the Swans are expected to be big players in the trade period, Cox insists Ollie Florent remains a required player despite spending a number of weeks in the VFL this season.

"We signed Ollie last year on a decent contract. All players that are contracted are required," he said.

"Have people had years that they want to have? Possibly not. That will be part of the exit meetings to work out why they didn't and what we can do in the off-season for them to have a really strong pre-season."

The Swans have once again been linked to Carlton superstar Charlie Curnow, but Cox insists no contact has been made.

"He's still got four years in blue. There's a lot of things that get said. He's a contracted player," he said.

"Have we spoken to him? No."

Regardless of who the Swans recruit in the off-season, they are bullish about rocketing back up the ladder next year with a lengthier pre-season than they've been afforded in recent years.

"The conversations we have with the leaders are on how we improve for 2026. We need to make sure that we have a strong off-season period, we have a longer break than we've had in a long time. We need to maximise that."