Having missed the entire 2007 season with a troublesome foot injury, the Swans defender knew only too well what sitting on the sidelines felt like.
And even though the hamstring injury was diagnosed as a small tear with a four-week recovery period, Roberts-Thomson was a little nervous about his prospects of playing in the Swans’ season-opener against St Kilda.
“The worrying thing was that I wasn’t sure whether I was going to be right for the season proper,” he told sydneyswans.com.au this week.
“There was a little bit of time up my sleeve and in the back of your mind, you’re thinking ‘What about all this hard work that I’ve done in the pre-season, is this going to affect my fitness going into the season?’ But fortunately it hasn’t.”
A fully fit Roberts-Thomson relished his return to footy in the NAB Challenge clash against the Bulldogs at Rouse Hill last weekend, helping the Swans to a 27-point win.
But he quickly remembered that pre-season training was no substitute for match fitness.
“I suppose playing in defence, I had all my teammates looking after me, so that made it a lot easier and the transition was a lot better,” he said.
“I found fitness is a little bit of an issue. I was blowing pretty early in the game, but that’s only natural and I’m sure every player finds that.”
The Swans back up Friday night against Adelaide and Roberts-Thomson said the aim was to fine-tune the team’s preparation for round one.
“Especially down in defence with Leo [Barry] and Tadhg [Kennelly] missing, we’ll just try to get our structures right and the important area there is making sure we have the right match-ups during the game,” he said.
With 98 games and two grand finals under his belt, Roberts-Thomson is one of the more experienced campaigners in the Swans defence.
He’s relished the chance to impart his knowledge to some of new faces down back, including Heath Grundy, Matthew Laidlaw and Kristin Thornton who have featured during the pre-season games.
And he believes the Swans’ younger players have a crucial role to play to ensure the club enjoys another successful season.
“It will be an interesting year. We need all hands on deck,” Roberts-Thomson said.
“We need our older players to have consistent years and our younger players to take on added responsibility. If all goes to plan, hopefully we will have a successful year.
“Personally, I just want to play every game and make sure my body’s up and running.
“That’s the primary objective for the season and then if you look more specifically, it’s nice to play a key position down in defence and organise the backline and make sure everyone’s working together there.”
Dream Team watch – Lewis Roberts-Thomson is rated a $233,600 defender in Toyota AFL Dream Team 2009.
