After his eye-catching four-goal effort against the Western Bulldogs at Rouse Hill on Saturday night, Roos said Hall would play “big minutes” against the Crows as the Swans put the finishing touches to their pre-season campaign.
“I think [Hall] probably surprised himself a little bit on the weekend. He played more minutes than we thought, and looked in really good shape in terms of his aerobic stuff,” Roos said on Tuesday.
“I think after he gets through this weekend’s game, I’m really confident leading into round one that he’s going to have a very, very good preparation.
“He’ll get big minutes this Friday night – 100, 110 minutes – and if he does that, he’ll probably go into round one in as good a condition as he has been in the past five or six years.”
Following two disappointing games against Port Adelaide and Melbourne, Roos was pleased with his side’s form against the Bulldogs.
The Swans led by more than seven goals at half time before resting key players as the Bulldogs clawed the final margin back to 27 points.
Roos said it was unlikely any players would be rested for long periods against Adelaide as the club treated the trip as a dress rehearsal for the season opener against St Kilda at Docklands.
“We’ll take 26 players [to Adelaide] this week, of which a couple will only come on in the second half if we get an injury,” he said.
“We won’t rest anyone unless we have to, barring an injury. There are maybe a couple of guys we can take a little bit of liberty with in the second half, but generally we’ll play our strongest team for as long as we possibly can.”
Roos again hinted that Jesse White would play in round one as the back-up ruckman to Darren Jolly and said it was likely that Heath Grundy would play up forward as cover for Michael O’Loughlin, who is recovering from an ankle injury.
While Roos said O’Loughlin would theoretically be fit enough to play in round one, he would be held back to ensure his preparation was ideal.
“If round one was a grand final, he’d definitely be playing, so he’ll be fit to actually play, but he’ll only have two weeks of training in terms of his footy training under his belt,” he said.
“To prepare him for the season, we need him to do a little more than that, so he’s more likely in round three, which will give him a really good chance for the season.”
Dream Team watch – Barry Hall is rated a $355,600 forward in Toyota AFL Dream Team 2009.
Michael O’Loughlin is rated a $294,500 forward in Toyota AFL Dream Team 2009.
