Sydney co-captain Kieren Jack has welcomed the growing doubt about his side’s AFL premiership credentials ahead of their crunch grand-final rematch against Hawthorn.

The Swans were comfortably dispatched by Geelong last Saturday, the 44-point loss coming two weeks after Collingwood notched an upset 29-point win at ANZ Stadium.

The reigning premiers return to their home away from home on Friday night, when they host the table-topping Hawks.

The Swans have drifted in premiership betting, while some pundits question if they’ll be able to serve it up to the likes of Geelong and Hawthorn in September.

“We don’t really worry about that. We’ve been written off before – we were probably written off at the back end of last year too,” Jack said on Wednesday.

“It doesn’t worry us. Internally, we know if we get right what we need to get right, we’re more than capable.”

Lewis Jetta and Lewis Roberts-Thomson, who have been sidelined for much of the season due to injury, are a chance of returning on Friday night but Dan Hannebery (knee) will headline John Longmire’s list of omissions this week.

“Jetts has been training pretty strongly now for a couple of weeks, so we need to get him fit before he’s right,” Jack said.

“But the thing is we’re getting used to the fact these young boys are coming in and that’s who we’ve got.

“We’re going to put our faith in them, and we’re very confident they can do that.”

Dane Rampe, Jed Lamb and Tom Mitchell are among those to debut this year who have had limited experience at the Swans’ Sydney Olympic Park base.

Jack suggested the Hawthorn game would aid the young guns’ preparation for the side’s home match in week two or three of the finals.

“We’ve got some young players in that probably haven’t experienced a lot of footy here,” Jack said.

“We are going to be playing a final here, so it’s important we know the ground well.”

Jack added the last-start loss to the Cats, in which his teammates were “absolutely smacked” in uncontested possessions, would also help the youngsters.

“Geelong are just a hardened side and it was a really valuable lesson for our boys coming into finals, absolutely,” he said.