Suspended for the opening half of last season, his first with the Swans after making the switch from Adelaide, Tippett then sustained a knee injury in the 2013 semi-final victory over Carlton.
Ruled out of the preliminary final loss to Fremantle, associated tendinitis then lingered throughout the ensuing pre-season, keeping him sidelined for the start of this year.
Ready to return in round six, he then suffered a back injury before two more knee issues restricted him to just 13 of a possible 24 appearances.
He has now strung eight consecutive games together, however, gradually building his form and fitness, which has allowed him to play forward and as a back-up in the ruck.
It's the role he was intended to play right from the start.
"As frustrating as it's been, we always had the longer-term view about being at our best at the right time of year," Tippett told AFL.com.au.
"Going through the different frustrations and the little injury setbacks during the year has definitely been worth it.
"Sometimes feeling like you had to hold yourself back or not train as hard as you want to, it all became evident why we had that long-term view.
"Ideally, if I was fit and firing from round one, I would've been playing that (back-up ruck) role from the start of the year.
"But we've had to introduce that slowly and over the last month I've been developing into it.
"I think I did it pretty well on Friday night and I'm looking forward to taking that into this weekend."
In the preliminary final against North Melbourne, Tippett finished with 15 disposals, nine marks, 12 hit-outs and four goals in an important contribution.
Coach John Longmire echoed Tippett's thoughts that he's peaking at the right time.
"He's getting better the longer the season has gone," Longmire said.
"He's starting to take a few marks and playing in the ruck more, which has been good for him and has added to the flexibility in our team.
"He's looking pretty sharp and no doubt he'll be confident this week."
Tippett says it initially took a while to sink in that he had qualified for his first AFL Grand Final.
The closest he had previously come to a decider was the 2012 preliminary final loss to Hawthorn, which proved his final match in Crows colours.
Along with the Hawks' five-point victory, the prevailing memory most have of that day is Tippett's performance, when he had 16 touches, 11 marks and kicked four goals, almost carrying Adelaide to an upset win.
That contest, in front of 69,000 fans, is the biggest match Tippett has played in to date, but he knows that will be easily surpassed this Saturday.
"Certainly that was a good game to play in," he said.
"It was the biggest game I'd played in at that time and we went close, but didn't quite get there.
"Obviously to play at the home of football, in front of 60,000-plus people, hopefully there's a few more there on Saturday.
"But it was a great experience and one I'm hoping to relive a little bit with the big crowd and obviously the big game.
"It was exciting to get the right result against North to progress into the big one."
Twitter: @AFL_JD http://afl.to/jamesdampney
