Sydney is set to look to Harry Cunningham to do a job on North veteran Brent Harvey on Saturday night.

After a stunning elimination final performance in which he collected 31 disposals and kicked two goals, Harvey is in dangerous form.

“There are many different theories about how to contain Boomer, not many have succeeded because he’s such a good player,” Swans’ coach John Longmire said.

“We’ve tried different approaches, some have worked and some haven’t. What we do know is that he’s a fierce competitor, extremely experienced in finals football and a real live-wire.

“We’ll put some time into him but we also need to acknowledge that they’ve got some firepower like Jarrad Waite, Ben Brown and Drew Petrie who are in some really good form.”

Tom Mitchell has been used regularly as a tagger in recent weeks, but all the talk is about Cunningham – a player who has been given the job on Harvey in the past; including in last year’s preliminary final when he kept him to 19 possessions.

"I admire Boomer," Cunningham said.

"It was a thrill to play on him. I don't know whether I'll get the job again but I'll definitely look forward to the challenge if I do."

Harvey hasn’t had his best games against Sydney; in his past five outings the 407-gamer he has returned 16, 14, 15, 19 and 22 disposals respectively. But Cunningham knows “Boomer” is always a chance to blow a game wide open in just a matter of minutes.

“You can’t switch off for a second,” Cunningham said about tagging Harvey.

“He’s very smart and obviously very experienced. He’s played a lot of games, which is a bit of an understatement, but he knows what it’s all about.

“It’s going to take a team effort.”