Midfield coach Leigh Tudor says North must win the contested ball and repeat last week’s tackling effort if it is to challenge the Sydney Swans at Etihad Stadium on Saturday night.

The experienced assistant knows the Swans’ preferred style of play having served as their midfield coach between 2011 and 2013 before arriving at Arden Street last season.

Tudor said the Roos were aware of the Swans’ strengths in the middle of the ground and had pinpointed their outside running game as another major threat.

“The two pillars of how they want to play is winning the contested ball and also getting it back as soon as they can by tackling,” Tudor told NMFC.com.au.

“They’ve also added a lot of outside run now; they’re really good uncontested.

“It’s a game where you usually set yourself for the inside fight against Sydney, but now you have to set yourself for having a contested game and also trying to look after them on the outside.”

North captain Andrew Swallow echoed Tudor’s views and said the Swans’ dominance in stoppage clearances this season had been a strong area of focus this week.

“This year more so than ever they’re trying to get out of the stoppages and spread,” Swallow said.

“They’ve got some really key guys in there that can play inside but also get it out of the stoppage, so they’re really going to be tough to stop.”

The Swans are ranked No.1 for handballs with an average of 181.7 per game, while North is ranked sixth in this area with 162.3.

Tudor said the Roos would need to apply tackling pressure to limit the opposition's ability to feed the ball out of the stoppage by hand.

“The way they handball the ball out from stoppages will give us an opportunity (to tackle) if we’re on,” he said.

“Last week, we gave away too many free kicks for too high so not just having the intent to tackle, but also the technique, is going to be really important against a side that is very strong and can shrug tackles.”

The Roos are ranked 14th in the league for tackles, while the Swans are the third-best team, averaging 72.2 per match.

Sydney midfielders Kieren Jack and Josh Kennedy sit inside the top 20 for total tackles, with fellow onballers Dan Hannebery, Luke Parker, Tom Mitchell and Jarrad McVeigh all renowned for their hard-nosed approach.

Swallow said the tackling component would be one of the keys to the game.

“We’ve spoken about trying to match them in that department, it was a great performance on the weekend to get that many tackles,” Swallow said, citing the Roos’ 91 tackles against West Coast last round.

“The total number is probably irrelevant but it’s more about our intent and sticking the tackles and the pressure and forcing turnovers.

“If we can get that it will go a long way to keeping us in the game.”