Swans and Suns brace for brutal Gather Round battle

Sydney and Gold Coast are both bracing for brutality when the early AFL pacesetters clash in a high-stakes Gather Round game.

The second-placed Swans and third-placed Suns are forecasting the narrow confines of Norwood Oval in Adelaide to have a bearing on their Saturday encounter.

The oval in Adelaide's suburban inner east is substantially smaller than most regular AFL venues - it's about 35 metres less in width than the MCG.

And both Sydney and Gold Coast note past Gather Round games at the Norwood have resulted in highly contested styles of matches.

"Most games here have been a little bit more contested," Swans coach Dean Cox said at Norwood Oval on Friday.

"From there, it's about trying to make sure that we still want to play our way and our brand of footy.

"It's very tough to go away from something you've worked on for such a long period of time but we're aware of the dimensions of this, the tightness of the ground.

"We have spoken throughout the week about what we might need to change and tweak.

"The importance of getting some field position straight off the bat is probably one of the highest things."

Gold Coast winger Lachie Weller, who played Fremantle at Norwood in the inaugural Gather Round in 2023, echoed the sentiments of Cox.

"It's something different," Weller said.

"I remember a couple years ago, you have 10,000 (spectators) here but feels like 50,000 - it's nice and loud and everyone's nice and close to the boundary, so it's a great atmosphere."

While the Swans enter Saturday's fixture after hammering West Coast by 128 points, the Suns are still stinging from their only loss of the season, against Melbourne at the MCG last round.

"We we had a bit of a down week ... our contest was down, especially throughout midfield," Weller said.

"So there's no better ground to test it out (than Norwood) and especially against the Swans who are normally really good at that."