WITH the finals less than a month away, you take every advantage you can get, and the Swans have possibly been given the slightest of edges heading into Saturday night's clash with St Kilda.

St Kilda has never played at Telstra Stadium, a venue described in the past by visiting clubs as different to most other AFL grounds.

St Kilda was not scheduled to train at the stadium this week but will have a "walk-through" on the ground tomorrow morning, a chance for players to familiarise themselves with the venue.

But when they do, the ground will be set up for rugby league, which, with stands not retracted, significantly differs from the AFL set-up.

The Saints are not the only ones to suffer, though, as Sydney has had to transfer tonight's main training session of the week from the stadium back to the SCG.

The reason why the venue has become unavailable for the AFL clubs is because of the rare occurrence that an NRL game, between the Roosters and Tigers, is scheduled for tomorrow night.

As a result, the ground staff would have had to set up for AFL today, change it tomorrow for rugby league, change it back for the Swans match on Saturday, then change to league for the Bulldogs-Raiders game on Sunday.

"It's to do with the turf works required to bring the venue up to AFL specifications," stadium spokesman Kyle Patterson said. "That's time-consuming and that can't be done twice effectively, once for training and once for the game."

Sydney coach Paul Roos, while disappointed about not being able to train as usual on the ground, was philosophical.

"It is disappointing because we want to train out there and we normally do, but there's not much we can do about it," Roos said.

"(In terms of the Saints not having even seen the ground), I don't know if it is a disadvantage but it is probably a ground you want to get on and have a wander around. I'm not sure what Rossy's (Ross Lyon, St Kilda coach) plans are.

"It is a bit of an unusual sized and shaped ground. It's a little bit similar to Kardinia Park (at Geelong) and I don't think St Kilda have played down there either this year."

Roos is hopeful of being able to include Leo Barry back in the team this week after the full-back missed the past fortnight with a hamstring injury.