SYDNEY Swans co-captain Brett Kirk says he isn't taking any notice of his side's lofty ladder position as it prepares to face the Brisbane Lions on Saturday night.

The Swans boast a 4-1 record after five rounds and their healthy percentage has them on top of the ladder, ahead of St Kilda, the Lions and Collingwood.

But Kirk said he preferred to measure his team's progress in more qualitative terms than a simple win-loss ratio.

"As a player, I don't even really look at it. It's more about how, as a team, we're going and whether we're playing the right game plan and playing four quarters," he said.

"Over the last few weeks, in patches, we've played good footy but we've been a bit up and down ... over four quarters, that's where the improvement needs to come from."

With the Swans' four scalps to date coming against teams that boast a paltry three wins between them, Kirk welcomed the challenge of facing the fifth-placed Lions.

"It's a big test. You want to play against the best opposition and Brisbane have shown over the first five weeks that they're going to be right up there," he said.

"Outside the walls, we're not too worried about how people are seeing us. No one really gave us too much of a hope early on.

"People will obviously judge us come Saturday night but as a team, we want to put a four-quarter performance in and we'll get more of an idea how we're going."

Swans coach Paul Roos echoed Kirk's thoughts and said he had read little into the Lions' upset 50-point loss to Melbourne in round five.

Similarly, he put little stock in reports that the Lions' star forward and skipper, Jonathan Brown, was struggling with an abdominal strain.

"Once they get on the ground, they're fit and I'm sure that Vossy (Lions coach Michael Voss) would take that opinion with his players and our players," he said.

"I'm expecting Browny to run out on Saturday night and we'll treat him with the respect he deserves. Heath (Grundy) will need to be playing well to beat him and we expect a 100 per cent Jonathan Brown."

Roos said he didn't expect any fireworks when Daniel Bradshaw lined up on his former Lions teammates for the first time on Saturday night, given the dual premiership forward left the club after being offered to Carlton as trade bait for Brendan Fevola.

Meanwhile, Ted Richards, who played in round one against St Kilda before being omitted, replaces the injured Craig Bolton (achilles) and Roos said it was a like-for-like swap in the Swans' back six.

"Craig's been playing on the medium-type players that Teddy can play on as well. He was in good form pre-season and he just missed out because we decided to go with Lewis (Roberts-Thomson) and Heath and Craig.

"Hopefully he comes in and does as well as Nick Smith did last week."