Sydney's six-goal qualifying final loss to the Giants led to a week of meetings to discuss the embarrassing defeat, and spurred the Swans into action with strong subsequent wins over Adelaide and Geelong.

Last weekend as Sydney cruised to victory over the Cats, the Bulldogs played their part in the most intense game of the season, scraping through with a six-point win over GWS at Spotless Stadium to earn their first grand-final appearance in 55 years.

And while the Swans are banged up with Aliir Aliir to miss the game through injury, and Jarrad McVeigh and Callum Mills yet to prove their fitness, they're not as fatigued as a gutsy but heavily taxed Bulldogs outfit.

Swans legend Barry Hall, who captained Sydney to a premiership in 2005 before finishing his career with two seasons at the Bulldogs, said he was concerned the past three weeks of finals might be about to catch up with the underdogs.

"Three real hard games that they've played, they're full of emotion, they've had to come from behind a couple of times," Hall said. "When you see that and we saw it with West Coast last year, you see that when you get to the grand final, you're almost out of petrol tickets.

"I hope that's not the case. They're a struggling club, out the west of Melbourne, it sounds really silly but AFL, it's an untapped area out there, it's such a big area with so many different sports you can choose from.

"Sydney would be rapt the Western Bulldogs are in. The Bulldogs have got all the talk now.

"It sounds silly being grand final week ... there is not a lot of talk about the Sydney Swans, it's probably the perfect preparation for them, they've been there, they've done it before.

"How the Dogs are going to turn up I'm not sure because they've worked so hard to get here."

The Bulldogs and Swans have both played three finals games to win through to the decider, although Sydney has logistically had a much easier passage.

After losing to the Giants, they proved far too good for Adelaide at the SCG before downing Geelong convincingly in Melbourne.

The seventh-placed Bulldogs had to beat West Coast in Perth in week one of the finals, before knocking out Hawthorn at the MCG prior to Saturday's successful journey to western Sydney.

And while the Giants' form reads very well for the Bulldogs ahead of Saturday's grand final, Hall said the Swans were well below their best when GWS jumped them in the qualifying final.

"It almost woke the Swans up, because I know for a fact they had a lot of meetings that week about what they're about and how that game went," Hall said.

"I don't know for certain but I'd imagine they'd have wanted the Western Bulldogs rather than the Giants because you see what happened in the first final.

"They were filthy with their performance. Then we see in the following weeks, they were unbelievable the Swans, particularly the first half of both of those games, they were unstoppable.

"On the weekend I think the first half of footy is going to be red-hot. If the Bulldogs can stay with them, I hope they can, they're a chance. The spirit they've got in the second half of footy they just play games out."