SYDNEY'S defenders have tapped the mind of their forwards coach and former Greater Western Sydney star Steve Johnson in the lead-up to Saturday's derby against GWS.

Johnson played his last two seasons at the Giants before starting his full-time coaching career at the Swans late last year.

Johnson, who won three premierships in 14 seasons with Geelong before joining GWS, worked closely with a talented young Giants forwards group.

Match preview: Sydney v Greater Western Sydney

"I think it's something we can try to use to our advantage," Swans defender Nick Smith said on Thursday.

"He was obviously a part of their set-up for a few years and his footy knowledge is really good, so he's helped us out this week with that."

Johnson reportedly remains in contact with some of the Giants.

"I hope he's cut back a little bit (this week), but I'm not too sure," Smith said.

Smith, a stalwart of the Swans backline over the past decade, emphasised the group needed to lift after the Sydney was outplayed in the second half by Port Adelaide last Sunday.

Asked what disappointed him most about the defence's effort in that game, Smith said: "Probably the ease with which Port Adelaide scored against (us).

"The percentage of scores, times in, was something we've been good at the last couple of years and we weren't as good on the weekend."

Smith stressed it would need a strong collective effort across all lines to limit supply to, and contain, a potent Giants forward set-up including talls Jeremy Cameron and Jon Patton.

"It's definitely a combination of the two, we need the mids and forwards putting up pressure, but we have to be better ourselves down back," Smith said.

"They are such a talented forward group, if they have good service and good delivery, they are going to be very hard to stop."

Sydney's own forward stocks for Saturday will be boosted by the return of the strong marking Sam Reid, who missed the first two games of the season with hamstring tightness.

Robbie Fox was omitted to make way for Reid, while speedster Zak Jones failed to recover in time from the calf issue which forced him to withdraw from last week's team.