Collingwood ruckman Darren Jolly is prepared to go into battle this Friday night as the lone big man should Chris Dawes fail to recover from a knee injury in time to meet the Sydney Swans.

With Nick Maxwell suspended, the option of replicating the round 23 answer in which the skipper backed up Jolly in Dawes' absence is not available.

Collingwood Football and Coaching Strategist Rodney Eade admitted on Wednesday that possibilities would be limited if Dawes joined Maxwell in the grandstand, and said "anyone with some height is an option".

The 174cm Jarryd Blair has been joked about several times as a rucking option, but defender-cum-forward Tyson Goldsack looms as the most likely possibility should Dawes struggle.

View the photos from Wednesday's training session.

Whichever way it goes, Jolly believes he can cover Swans' duo Shane Mumford and Mike Pyke as a solo act if he has to.

"I've done it before. [In round 23], you couldn't really say 'Maxy' helped out a lot - he got thrown around a fair bit," Jolly told AFL.com.au.

"If that's the case and it has to happen, I'll take that on board and see it as a little challenge and I'll accept it.

"I'm not worrying about it at this stage.

"I know Dawesy is confident, I spoke to him before and he said he was confident he would get up.

"Once they pick the team, we'll worry about it then."

Jolly, 30, has been carefully managed through his 12th season. He missed rounds six and seven with Achilles soreness, and was also out in rounds 10, 18 and 22.

Before the season, he sat down with the fitness staff and they decided 20 matches would be appropriate.

Chris Dawes trains strongly on Wednesday.

Despite putting in two massive performances over the past fortnight against Hawthorn's David Hale and Jarryd Roughead, and West Coast's Dean Cox and Nic Naitanui, he believes his body is in a good place going into the do-or-die final.

"Winning finals makes the recovery go quicker, for some reason," he said.

"You know you're progressing each week and it makes all the bruises and aches and pains go away a lot quicker.

"Certainly it has been taking me a little bit longer to recover after games, but certainly in the last two weeks I've pulled up really well."

Jolly will at times line up against Pyke, the Canadian rugby player-turned Swans ruckman who was his teammate in 2009.

Wednesday at the Westpac Centre.

He said Pyke's development from when he arrived at the club as an international rookie in 2008 had been remarkable.

"He's been awesome with his progression in our game, which was foreign to him only four or five years ago now," Jolly said.

"He's sort of flown under the radar. Not many people talk about it.

"I think he's going exceptionally well. He's picked up the game, his skills have improved and he's knowing how to use his body in the ruck and he's becoming a big, strong influence."

Jolly said he was prepared for "a truckload" of stoppages.

"We know it's going to be contested footy, tackles are going to be high, so it's going to be the first team that settles and gets into a routine - and hopefully it's us."

Jennifer Witham is a reporter for AFL Media. Follow her on Twitter @AFL_JenWitham.