SYDNEY Swans coach Paul Roos is “excited” by his team’s progress this season and says this year’s premiership race is wide open.

A day after Roos wrote about premiership windows in his fortnightly column for afl.com.au, the Swans coach gave the impression he believes his team’s is firmly open after its strong form in recent weeks.

“I’m not really surprised … it’s exciting,” he said.

“It’s good to see the young kids going well because you don’t know how young kids are going to respond.

“And you don’t know after so many years of tough footy … is Kirky going to keep going? Is Leo Barry going to keep going?

“I’m rapt and I think it’s just great that they’re playing really good footy at the moment.”

Roos, who took over as coach in 2002, said the improvement of his ‘mid-tier players’ had also played a major role in his team being fifth on the AFL ladder after 10 rounds.

“[Jarrad] McVeigh, [Paul] Bevan and Teddy Richards have all improved, and with Marty Mattner and [Henry] Playfair coming in it’s really helped us,” he said.

“It was a bit of an unknown going into the season … I had confidence in the team but there’s still a long way to go.”

Another positive for the Swans is the fact they have performed so well without having their best side on the park at any stage throughout the season.

Nick Malceski missed the early part of the season, Tadhg Kennelly has also missed matches, while Barry Hall will return shortly after serving a long suspension and breaking his right wrist.

Despite Hall’s absence the Swans have the best percentage in the competition and have regularly racked up big scores, raising the question of how Roos will manage his spearhead’s return.

However the coach said watching Hall train recently had made him even more eager to get the burly forward back in his line-up.

“You’d love to have him in the team,” he said.

“He’s just so quick and powerful and he was marking everything with one hand.

“I think the fact is now we’ve actually learned to play without him, so you’d think when he comes back in we’d be hitting Henry Playfair and hitting Mick O’Loughlin and Ryan O’Keefe more often.

“It’s been a really good period but we’re desperate to get him back in.”

As for his own side’s premiership aspirations, Roos isn’t looking beyond this week and the West Coast Eagles.

But he doesn’t think there are only one or two horses running in this year’s premiership race.

“I don’t think there’d be any one of the coaches that could absolutely pick a definitive premiership favourite,” he said.

“If everyone has to pick a team that they think will win it they’d pick a side that has got everyone playing [and] up and going, but how often does that happen?

“If everyone gets their best team on the field, well, it’s probably Geelong but I think even Bomber [Thompson] knows that not everything goes right all the time.

“So I think in that regard … it’s more open.”