The Swans are refusing to give up on making the AFL finals despite sitting on just three wins during their bye week, with the club likely needing nine victories from its last 12 matches to secure a top-eight finish.

Sydney return to action in Thursday's crunch clash against the Western Bulldogs at the SCG sitting an unfamiliar third from the bottom, and three wins outside the top eight.

Many fans ruled a line through the Swans after last weekend's narrow loss to Hawthorn, but with a positive percentage and key trio Kieren Jack, Sam Naismith and Jarrad McVeigh close to returning from injury, the league's most consistent club over the last two decades is still mathematically in the frame.

Since the introduction of the top-eight system in 1994, clubs have qualified for the finals with an average of just under 12 wins.

Given the tightness of the competition in 2017, 12 wins and perhaps a strong percentage looks likely to be enough for a finals finish, which gives the Swans three losses worth of wriggle room in their last 12 fixtures.

Three times the eighth-placed team has qualified with just 10 wins, Essendon most recently in 2009, but that figure looks too low this season. And in 2012, the year the Swans last won the flag, North Melbourne occupied eighth place with 14 wins, albeit with a gap of two wins back to ninth-placed St Kilda.

The Swans have made the AFL finals an astonishing 18 times in the past 21 seasons.

Forward Gary Rohan said Sydney were refusing to project any further than the Bulldogs game, but knew there was still time to turn their faltering season around.

"We haven't given up on making finals, we still believe that we have a chance," Rohan said.

"You can't get too far ahead of yourself like we might have gotten in the first half of the season. We're a good chance to bounce our season back with the Bulldogs on Thursday night, hopefully we can start the season again with a win there.

"Everything going well, we win those last nine or whatever we need to win, but at this stage it's about the Bulldogs."

Last year's two grand finalists locked horns in a round-two thriller with the Bulldogs eventually prevailing at Etihad Stadium.

Sydney proceeded to lose their next four matches, the low point coming in round six at the MCG against Carlton where a sickening fall by Rohan in a third-quarter marking contest looked to knock the wind out of the Swans' sails.

Rohan ran back with the flight, and was flipped awkwardly in mid-air landing heavily on the base of his neck. He was taken from the field on a stretcher and spent the night in hospital with a concussion before returning to Sydney the following day.

The 25-year-old has only watched the replay once.

"Apparently I was awake talking to the doctors but I can't really remember until I was in the rooms and going into the back of the ambo," Rohan said.

"The docs were saying that I just wanted to sleep all the time because I was concussed, that's why I had my eyes closed all of the time.

"I landed on my GPS on my back and that's why I was complaining about my sore back.

"I got scans and all that done that night, I got an MRI on my back and neck and head. All the scans came back all clear so I didn't have to worry about it injury-wise.

"I just had a thumping headache from the concussion. It took me a good week to recover from that, I just had headaches during the week, and was stiff and sore and a bit foggy."