The Swans took a near full-strength side to AAMI Stadium, but they were humbled by 28 points against a hard-running Crows outfit.
The loss followed a strong showing against the Western Bulldogs at Rouse Hill, where the Swans dominated the contest before winning by 27 points.
But Roos said he didn’t read too much into the result, preferring instead to focus on the preparation of his players.
“The main thing now, when you’re looking back over the four weeks of practice games – and most coaches would say the same thing – is how prepared your players are,” he said before training at Lakeside Oval on Wednesday.
“We don’t look at the Bulldogs result, to be perfectly frank, as any better than… the Adelaide result.
“What you’re trying to [ask] is has Hally done enough, and Craig Bolton and Brett Kirk. They have.
“We go in pretty fit and pretty well prepared, with a couple of blokes out, obviously Leo [Barry] and Mick [O’Loughlin] but I think the guys who will represent in round one are in pretty good physical shape.”
Roos conceded that the loss to the Crows had raised some concerns about the team’s work rate, but he said all pre-season results needed to be put into perspective.
“Against the Bulldogs, we weren’t overly pleased that we won. We weren’t doing cartwheels thinking that we dominated a top-four team from last year,” he said.
“I’m sure Rocket wasn’t too disappointed, as Craigy wouldn’t have been too excited by it [last week] and I wasn’t too disappointed.
“The disappointing thing was that we didn’t play very well [against Adelaide], so clearly over the next two weeks, we’ve got to try to improve that before round one.
“The real stuff starts the weekend after this and hopefully, we’re well prepared and we play well, but it’s going to be another challenging year”
Roos confirmed again that veteran forward O’Loughlin was physically fit to play in round one, but he would be held back until about round three to ensure he was fully prepared for the season.
Dream Team watch – Michael O’Loughlin is rated a $294,500 forward in Toyota AFL Dream Team 2009.
