SYDNEY Swans coach Paul Roos says the mid-season break has come at the right time for a number of his senior players struggling for form.

The Swans have endured a rollercoaster of results in the first half of the season winning all five games in Sydney and losing all six road encounters.

While the inclusion of some inexperienced players has contributed to the team’s inconsistency, Roos acknowledged that the contributions from several senior players had been below par.

“Eleven weeks is a long time in footy and … for the guys who aren’t playing well, it comes at a good time,” he said at the SCG on Wednesday.

“They know who they are and it’s a real challenge for them to have a break, get up and to come in the second half of the year and improve their performance. The guys who are playing well, hopefully they can continue to do that after the break.”

The Swans head into the split round with a 5-6 record, having lost their past two games, but Roos said his side would head into the June 19 clash against Collingwood at ANZ Stadium with optimism.

“I’d love to be 7-4 or 6-5, but ironically one of our better games was last weekend [against Hawthorn],” he said.

“We played a terrific game of footy against a terrific footy team and only just lost. Hopefully the guys come back from the break with a fair bit of confidence.”

The Swans have lost their past six clashes with Collingwood and Roos said there was no great secret to the Magpies’ sustained run of success.

“Where we’ve fallen down against Collingwood, we’ve probably had some good efforts from some of our players and some of our players have just played poorly,” he said.

“That’s been consistent throughout the last six years, probably more so against Collingwood than any other team.

“That’s got to be the main focus against Collingwood. We’ll lose to them again if we have 12 players playing well and nine or 10 that don’t play well.”

In injury news, Jared Crouch should be fit to tackle the Magpies after sustaining a knock to his knee against Hawthorn but Craig Bolton is a 50-50 prospect after being diagnosed with a slight medial ligament strain.

Patrick Veszpremi is some chance to play his first game of the year against Adelaide in round 13 but Roos said the young forward was more likely to resume the following week against North Melbourne.

And veteran defender Leo Barry’s recovery from pre-season knee surgery continues to progress slowly. He had been slated to resume playing at some level immediately after the split round but Roos said he was unsure when the 32-year-old would be fit to return to the field.