IT WAS a match-up image as stark as any seen this season.

Sydney's co-captain and All-Australian midfielder Callum Mills lining up at full-back on Geelong's 767-goal behemoth Tom Hawkins in round six at Kardinia Park.

Mills is not slight, far from it. And he's performed with aplomb in defence on many occasions in red and white.

But this was a match-up born out of necessity, with tall Swans defenders Paddy McCartin, Tom McCartin and Dane Rampe all out injured.

Sydney was slaughtered by 93 points by Geelong that day, just seven games after being beaten heavily by the same team in last season's Grand Final.

You'll be hard pressed to find a Swans player or coach talking about revenge or settling a score against the Cats ahead of their crunch SCG clash on Friday night.

And with Mills no chance of starting the game in the defensive goalsquare, it is perhaps a sign that the circumstances have changed from earlier in the season.

"Yeah, I doubt I'll be lining up on Tom Hawkins to be honest," Mills told AFL.com.au.

"But I think that's the best part about footy. You get thrown different challenges and we were obviously a bit injury-ravaged for me having to play as a key defender.

"But what's exciting is that it's a new wave almost. It's a new game. Things were different to when we last played them and we'll obviously take learnings out of that, but we're really looking forward to the new challenge ahead and we're going to have to be on our A-game to beat them."

The task of turning the tide against the Cats, though, has been made tricker by a calf injury suffered at training by midfield dynamo Chad Warner.

The young jet will miss at least two weeks and while the Cats will be without superstar forward Jeremy Cameron, it's still a significant blow for Sydney.

The versatile Mills is often thrown around the ground as the Swans' Mr Fix-It but in Warner's absence, he may be deployed in the pure on-ball role that saw him named as an All-Australian last year.

"I'm not really sure. There's obviously Isaac (Heeney) who's been able to do that job as well," Mills said of his role against the Cats.

"There'll be different looks and we think the more people that go through there, the better.

"Obviously we're really shattered for Chad but it's sort of the same mentality we've had all year. We've had a lot of boys go out with injury and the next one up can have the impact. We think we can adapt to it really well."

The form of last round's AFL Rising star nominee, Angus Sheldrick, will help alleviate Warner's absence in the midfield, while Mills' return from his own five-week calf injury last week has also beefed up the engine room.

It was an unfamiliar sight to see Mills with the headphones on, assisting the Swans coaching staff from the interchange bench during his injury lay-off.

"It's obviously a thing you don't want to be doing but Dane Rampe and I, when we were both injured, thought it was a good way to continually stay involved and get the messages the coaches were wanting and feed that to the players and then understand what they're feeling as well," he said.

The Swans star would have also observed his team's young key forwards start to blossom at a time when Lance Franklin has been out of the side.

Buddy will miss again as he recovers from a knee issue but with Logan McDonald, Joel Amartey and Hayden McLean all impressing, his void is being compensated for as well as ever.

"Yeah, it's been really pleasing. I think Joel, Logan and Hayden have all taken a step forward this year, which is really impressive and Bud's obviously had to carry a fair bit of a load early on with a few of the injuries we've had," Mills said.

"To share the load and make sure that it's rotated well and they get the best out of everyone has been really nice and Lance has been the one that's leading that.

"It's been really beneficial for their development and the team's development the way we attack. When 'Bud' comes in, it just adds another nice bow to our strength, which is really exciting to be honest."

The last time the Swans beat the Cats, it was Warner and Franklin who linked up for an all-time AFL moment as Buddy kicked goal No.1000.

And while things have been rather ugly for Sydney in the two match-ups since, one which decided the premiership, it's not something anyone at the Swans is dwelling on – at least externally.

"You want to be able to give your best effort and obviously the last couple of times we've played them, it hadn't been our best efforts and I don't think that necessarily makes you want to play better," Mills added.

"Anyone you play against, you want to put your best foot forward. And that's what we're really looking forward to. It's a new opportunity, it's a new game, we took the lessons that we've learned and we're really looking forward to this new challenge ahead of us."