SHANE Mumford has reined in his ruthless streak, with Greater Western Sydney enforcer now more cautious approaching any contest.

Mumford shapes as a key player in Saturday's blockbuster away to former club Geelong and the Giants' finals campaign, with teammates regularly referring to him as the side's "barometer".

Part of it is Mumford's physicality.

Few players in the league carry Mumford's reputation for inflicting pain on the opposition.

The barbarous tag doesn't sit well with the imposing ruckman, who counters that "it's not so much that I'm going for the man" and "everything I do is about making life easier for teammates".

But the 31-year-old knows he is of limited use to teammates on the sidelines, as was the case following a recent one-game ban resulting from a high hit on Melbourne's Max Gawn.

The former boilermaker is also acutely aware the Match Review Panel's tolerance for anything clumsy or crude has changed immensely in recent years.

"You now have to be a lot more cautious when you're approaching a contest," Mumford said.

"If you can see a head over the ball, you obviously really try to avoid it.

"Tackling is a tough one, because if you're tackling someone to ground, you automatically run the risk of being suspended.

"So in that split second, hard as it is, you work out if you risk hitting their head or not.

"If that means you pull back a bit or try and release an arm, then the opposition gets the ball out, so be it. Because it's not worth missing weeks over it."

The 2012 premiership Swan offered a no-nonsense response when asked about the MRP, expressing similar sentiments to what many coaches did last week.

"You just don't know how they're going to grade things," he said.

"A lot of it depends on what happens to the person that you hit ... and it's just not worth the risk of challenging. If you lose, you cop the extra week but also a bad record."

However, Mumford has no plans to stop hunting the ball with reckless abandon or throwing his weight around legally.

"If I can get in the way of some of their mids to protect space for my mids, that's what I'll do," he said.