But for the intercepting half-back, who plays his 14th game at the top level against North Melbourne on Sunday afternoon, it's the pain of missing out on, not losing, the 2016 decider that fuels his determination.

After featuring in all three finals games last year, Marsh was given the tap on the shoulder in the lead up to Western Bulldogs game and told he would have to make way.

Callum Mills and Jarrad McVeigh were returning from injury and coach John Longmire simply found no alternative but to remove Marsh from the grand final jigsaw.

"It was pretty tough," Marsh said. "Macca was coming back in, as well as Millsy, and I knew that I was probably the one to miss out.

"It was pretty hard to take, but it probably just gave me more motivation over the off-season and the pre-season to come back and hope that doesn't happen again.

"There's always these stories – every year I reckon there's a story about something like that. You've just got to take it and move on as quickly as you can and put your energy towards getting better."

It was a harsh end to the West Australian's breakout year in the AFL, but he refuses to dwell on what might have been given the convoluted journey he took before cracking the Swans seniors.

Marsh was drafted at the end of 2012 but failed to crack the top grade in his first three years of wearing the red and white.

The club delisted him in 2015 then redrafted him as a rookie in a shuffle of the playing roster before elevating him back to the senior side, and in round 10 last year he made his long-awaited debut against North Melbourne at the SCG.

"I was doing weights and then Henry Playfair, the backs coach, came up and grabbed me and pulled me upstairs," Marsh said.

"Horse [Longmire] was in the match committee room and just said 'you're playing'. I was over the moon.

"It was one of the best experiences I've had. Friday night at home and just everything about it, it was Indigenous round and everything was unreal and to get the win was amazing."

Unfortunately there hasn't been too many of those to savour in 2017.

Marsh had a strong pre-season, underpinned by the hurt he felt in being cut from the grand final team, and has played all but one game this season.

A slight hamstring tweak kept him out of the round-six loss to Carlton, but he came back in last weekend against the Brisbane Lions and looks to have established himself as a member of the Swans' back six.

And while the club's first triumph this year was only against lowly Brisbane, it was one the club desperately needed after its worst start in almost a quarter of a century.

"It's done plenty, it's given us a lot of confidence going forward – we always knew that we can play that kind of footy," Marsh said.

"It's just bringing it week after week. We're looking forward to this week and bringing the same."

The in-form Kangaroos, though, will provide a much stiffer test at Etihad Stadium on Sunday.

"They've been doing really well this year, we'll need our hardness all over the ground," Marsh said.

"It gets broken down into your one on ones and that kind of stuff, and initially just beating your opponent. Fundamentally, it's all about defence and then working offensively from there."