With the mercury likely to be above 30 degrees at 5.30pm for the first bounce, Swans head of football Tom Harley said the intensity of the heat would dictate how the four 20-minute quarters would be managed.

"It's a little bit of suck it and see, because it's an intra-club you can control the conditions as much as you can so we'll play that by ear," Harley said.

"It's going to be hot. We'll take all the heat precautions with fans and potentially looking into a cool room and all those sorts of things.

"As far as shortening quarters and having breaks, we'll just basically take a sensible approach to that as it presents itself."

Friday's game in Sydney's inner west marks the Swans' first public hit-out since last year's grand-final loss to the Western Bulldogs.

Several big names will be out of action nursing off season surgeries and various niggling injuries, but superstars Dan Hannebery, Kieren Jack, Kurt Tippett and Dane Rampe are expected to line up. Sam Reid, who didn't play a single AFL game last year after an injury-interrupted season, is also slated to play.

The Swans' coaching staff spent Thursday afternoon dividing the playing list in half to produce two closely matched sides.

"We've tried to just get it as even as we possibly can, in the past we've loaded one team but we've gone a real mix, tried to match up guys pretty evenly and hopefully it's a close game," assistant coach Stuart Dew said.

"For senior players it's probably more a physical preparation for them and just getting a bit of touch.

"You've got guys that are probably around the mix but not guaranteed a game and want to really impress and then the younger players are just keen to see a real game where you have proper umpires, 18-a-side, all that sort of stuff.

"It's a bit of a mixed bag but everyone's trying to make an impression in some shape or form."