The Swans are likely to field a full-strength side against the Bulldogs for at least the first half of the NAB Challenge game as Roos attempts to settle his squad for round one of the premiership season.
Defender Lewis Roberts-Thomson will play his first game of the year, while Brett Kirk, Heath Grundy and Paul Bevan will return after being rested against Melbourne last week.
“I wouldn’t have thought you’ll see anyone other than the guys playing this week that will play in round one. It’ll be a pretty strong team,” Roos said at Bruce Purser Reserve in Rouse Hill.
“We’ll probably take a few off at half time, because guys like Jude [Bolton] have played a fair bit and Rhyce Shaw has been going at it for a while.
“But certainly in the first half, you’ll see as strong a team as we can put on the field and I suspect the Bulldogs will be pretty similar.
“It’s going to be a really good entertaining contest. The last two weeks of the pre-season are when you want to get your team up and going and get them ready to play from a fitness and game plan point of view.”
Roos said he was happy to discuss team selection for pre-season clashes with opposition coaches as both clubs prepared their squads for season openers later this month.
He spoke with Melbourne coach Dean Bailey before last week’s game at Visy Park, but he said he was yet to make contact with Bulldogs coach Rodney Eade.
“I suspect… when we see their team, we know they’ll be pretty strong. They had a few come back last week – [Mitch] Hahn, [Robert] Murphy, [Jason] Akermanis – so they need some game time, just like [Luke] Ablett, [Jared] Crouch, [Barry] Hall [and Nick] Malceski,” Roos said.
“I’d suspect at least in the first half, you’d see two teams pretty much at full strength.”
Roos said he hadn’t considered whether to play Crouch on Akermanis to allow the pair to continue their healthy rivalry, but it wasn’t out of the question.
“I haven’t thought about that… if Crouchy comes to me and asks me to, or Aker might ring me and ask me to put [Crouch] on him, so we’ll wait and see,” Roos said with a laugh.
Dream Team watch – Lewis Roberts-Thomson is rated a $233,600 defender in Toyota AFL Dream Team 2009.
Jared Crouch is rated a $251,500 midfielder in Toyota AFL Dream Team 2009.
