IT IS a measure of the task the Swans confront tomorrow that the team they face is more regularly being pitted in fictional battles with elite teams from recent history than compared with contemporary rivals.

Is Geelong better than the Essendon team that lost just one game in 2000? Does it stack up against the relentless, star-studded Brisbane Lions triple premiership teams of 2001-2003?

Could it — less likely — rival the glamorous Hawthorn teams of the 1980s?

Beyond the hypotheticals, one question that will be answered: Could the Cats become the first team to go through a season unbeaten (Collingwood went 18-0 in 1929 but lost a semi-final)?

If the unfurling of the premiership flag before the game against hapless Melbourne created jitters, a fairly routine 42-point crushing of St Kilda last Saturday was business as usual.

So what will bring Geelong to its knees? Even for one day.

Injuries are the most obvious answer but, so far, some significant casualties have not yet had an impact.

The long-term foot fracture that cost defender Matthew Egan a premiership medal does not allow Matthew Scarlett and Tom Harley quite the same freedom. But with the under-rated Darren Milburn stepping up, the Cats are hardly light-on for quality tall defenders.

Ruckman Brad Ottens' foot injury and trading Steven King to St Kilda has left the heavy lifting to youngsters Mark Blake and Trent West.

But they provide decent service to a midfield that boasts, in Gary Ablett and Jimmy Bartel, two of the best four on-ballers in the competition (Chris Judd and Daniel Kerr complete the quadrella).

The player the Cats could least afford to lose is champion full-back Scarlett, whose ability to beat power forwards and work off them is a major asset. The reliability of Scarlett and his fellow backmen means the Cats don't have to get big numbers behind the ball to bail out their defence.

That helps compensate for one of their few weaknesses, a lack of pace among their elite midfielders.

The Cats have compensated for that with the direct, high-risk, high-possession game in which their big-bodied midfielders carry the ball down the centre — a style imitated by several teams, though none possessing the skill, robust physiques and quality numbers of the Cats.

Salary-cap pressure meant the Cats traded off depth with King and fellow forward Charlie Gardiner going to St Kilda, forward Henry Playfair to Sydney and defender Tim Callen to the Western Bulldogs.

But as they played nine games between them last season, that has so far had a greater impact on Geelong's reserves than the seniors.

If there was a structural weakness with Geelong, it was in attack where Cameron Mooney is a very good, not great power forward and Nathan Ablett was a work in progress. But Ablett's decision to walk away after last season provided an opportunity for Tom Hawkins who is, potentially, the third champion after Scarlett and Gary Ablett recruited by the club under the father-son rule.

For all that, an unbeaten season is a massive task.

What hope of Sydney putting paid to fancy notions of perfect seasons tomorrow?

Theoretically, the Swans should present Geelong a decent challenge. But great teams make a habit of turning theories into waste paper.