Midfielder Craig Bird is set to return to the side to take on Hawthorn at the MCG on Sunday and young onballer Nick Smith is a chance to come in for the third senior game of his career.
“It’s easy to look down the stats sheet and say, ‘I’ve come away with 30 [touches] and I’ve kicked a goal’ or ‘I’ve come away with 25’,” Roos said of the heavy loss against the Bulldogs.
“The reality is that when the game was up for grabs, for 40 minutes, we probably had one winner and that was Crouchy [Jared Crouch].
“We’ve won two of our last three games so it’s certainly not panic… but I think a few [players] throughout the course of the year have probably been a bit lucky because our younger players are all getting injured.”
Forward prospects Lewis Johnston (foot) and Patrick Veszpremi (finger) have both missed months of football already this year, while impressive midfielder Brett Meredith’s season is all but over after he broke his arm in the reserves.
“We’re aware at some point over the next 12 months to two years, you’re going to see guys like [Barry] Hall and [Brett] Kirk and Crouchy and Leo [Barry] and Mick [O’Loughlin] and all those sort of guys [retire] so we do have to unearth the next group of players,” Roos said.
“Unfortunately, it’s the older blokes that seem to be more resilient this year, which has allowed us to stay 5-5 and very much in the competition.
“We’re one game off third… so we’re not at the stage where we’d want to go all youth at this stage because we’re still a very competitive team. It would be nice to have those young guys putting pressure on the senior players.”
Roos raised Smith’s name without being prompted when asked the prospect of playing some of the club’s youngsters against the reigning premiers at the MCG on Sunday.
The 20-year-old has been among the best in the Swans’ reserves for the past month.
“Last year, we played Nick Smith in two games – one was against Hawthorn and one was against Geelong, and he’s in contention again,” he said.
“Those are the sort of things we’ll weigh up, no doubt, but still you’d like to pick players that are in good form and can translate it into games.”
The Swans defeated the Hawks by 38 points in round two at ANZ Stadium but Roos said that result would count for little when the two sides renewed acquaintances on Sunday.
“They’ve had some really good wins – they’ve played some really good football mixed up with some stuff like ourselves where they’ve been a bit inconsistent.
“They’ve still got Buddy Franklin and [Jarryd] Roughead and [Sam] Mitchell and [Jordan] Lewis and [Chance] Bateman and some real high quality players. That’s why they won the premiership last year.
“You don’t need to talk up Hawthorn because everyone knows how good they are, based on their premiership last year.”
