Coach Brenton Sanderson says he expects both Jason Porplyzia and skipper Nathan van Berlo to be fit to tackle Sydney at the SCG on Saturday night.

Porplyzia was a late withdrawal from the team that beat Port Adelaide last weekend after straining his deltoid muscle at training.

Van Berlo was substituted out of Balfours Showdown XXXII after half-time with a corked thigh.

The Crows won't name their team until Thursday evening, but Sanderson said the star pair was likely to line-up against the Swans.

"We subbed out van Berlo during the match (against Port Adelaide) because he had a nasty cork on his thigh/hip, but he's fine and will play this week," Sanderson said on Wednesday.

"Jason Porplyzia should come back into the side. He ticked all the boxes at training today, so there will be at least one change to the side that beat Port.

"Sam Shaw (hamstring) was close, but he only started running today, so it would've been too much of a risk playing him this week.

"He'll probably be one more week and be available for the match against Geelong (in round seven)."

Chris Knights (groin) is likely to return from injury via the SANFL this weekend.

The Crows are preparing for a typically tough and contested game against the Swans - ranked No.1 in the competition for contested possession this season.

Sanderson’s primary objective after taking over as coach of the Club last September was to improve the team’s ability to win contested ball. The approach has paid dividends so far, with the Crows now ranked second in the AFL in the all-important statistic.

“We had to fix up that contested area first, which we’ve done. Now, we have to sustain it against the top-four sides and see if it holds up on the big stage … I think we saw a bit of that on the weekend,” Sanderson said.

“We’ve kept it really simple initially and we'll now look for the game plan to evolve, and make adjustments along the way.

“It’s difficult to beat Sydney at contested ball just because of their style. Their inside midfielders are as good as you get. If we can try to beat them or at worst match them, we’ll certainly be in the game.”

The Crows have won five of the last six matches between the two teams at the SCG, including the most recent clash in round 17, 2008.

Sanderson said his team should take confidence from the record, despite not having played at the venue for almost four years.

“There are just some sides you feel as though you match up well against. I know Sydney is like that for Adelaide,” he said.

“It suits us to play a contested brand of footy. That’s the way we like it at the moment, so it shouldn’t be a game we fear.”

While not looking any further ahead than the clash with the Swans, Sanderson accepted judgements would be made on his team after a tough five weeks, which includes matches against 2011 Grand Finalists Geelong and Collingwood, and finals fancies Carlton and Fremantle.

“We’ll learn how well we match up against the top-four sides. We’ve had one opportunity to do that against Hawthorn and we didn’t take it,” Sanderson said.

“We need to try to beat every team we play against. We don’t think, ‘oh, this is a game we can play poorly in and everyone will forgive us because it’s against a top side’. We go into every game expecting to win and play well.

“If we play as hard as we can and we’re not good enough we have to live with it, but at times we’ll take it right up to these top-four sides.”