Jordan Wakeling, Ben Jones and Brad Vallance all teach at the Felltimber campus of Wodonga Middle Years College and were roped into playing by Swans' senior coach and the school's assistant principal Steve Fouracre.

It's been nine years between drinks for Jones, Wakeling has been out of the game four-and-a-half seasons, while Vallance hasn't had a kick in four years.

They now find themselves a win away from the Upper Murray grand final, but they'll have to overcome reigning premiers Bullioh on Saturday to get there.

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At first, the trio were only expecting to be running around in the twos, but with numbers in the Upper Murray league dwindling, the club was forced to withdraw from the reserve competition and throw every player it had into the senior squad.

"He (Fouracre) got us at a vulnerable moment at the Christmas party," Vallance laughed.

"When it got close to the season starting and it was only one team, we all realised we were in for the long haul."

Close to half of the Swans' side works at a school, with Michael Hosking and Josh Buckland teachers at the Wodonga Middle Years' Huon campus, Darren Clough is assistant principal at Melrose Primary School, while newly-crowned league best and fairest Tom McKimmie is at Corryong College.

"It's nice to throw the banter and the big words around the change room before the game," Jones laughed.

"There's plenty of teacher talk going on."

Wakeling said the trio was close-knit before stepping onto the field together, but he's enjoyed the extra camaraderie around the club.

"We've got a good group of blokes, some of them have been retired from five to 15 years," he said.

"To all go out there at the same time and get to a prelim is a pretty good effort."

Many are expecting the Bulldogs to be too strong on their home deck and book their place in the grand final against Cudgewa, but the Swans are more than happy to fly under the radar.

The sides drew their opening meeting in round three, before victories from Bullioh (238 points) and (194 points) against an undermanned Federal in the other games.