Sydney Swans defender Rhyce Shaw could miss this weekend’s round three clash with North Melbourne after sustaining an abdominal injury in Saturday afternoon’s win over Gold Coast.

Swans coach John Longmire confirmed today that Shaw suffered an abdominal strain in the win over the Suns and will face a fitness test ahead of this Saturday’s match against the Kangaroos at Hobart’s Blundstone Arena.

“Rhyce is in doubt this week,” Longmire told media on Monday afternoon.

“He’s got a lower abdominal strain so he’s in doubt this week, so we probably think he may not play.

“He’s still got a question mark, but we haven’t ruled him out yet and we’ll give him every chance to play.”

Shane Mumford was the only other injury concern out of Saturday’s 41-point win over the Suns, but the coach remained optimistic about the ruckman’s fitness.

“Shane Mumford suffered a bit of a knock to his knee and it’s a little bit sore today but we’re hoping he’ll be OK by the end of the week,” Longmire said.

Following the Swans’ consecutive wins over GWS and Gold Coast to start the season, Longmire said his team would need to take their game to another level this weekend against North Melbourne.

Although the Kangaroos have failed to secure a win in their opening two rounds against Collingwood and Geelong, Longmire believes North Melbourne’s first half form against the Cats was the best half of football from a team he’s seen this year.

“Their first half was as an efficient performance as I’ve seen from any team this year,” he said.

“They were lethal with the ball and they used it so well. They went inside 50 a lot less than Geelong and they were able to have a good lead at different times of the game because their efficiency was so sleek.

“Their forward 50 efficiency in the first half was just off the scale.

“They are a good team and they’ve got plenty of young players who are full of confidence and probably consider themselves a bit unlucky that they lost on the weekend.”

After curbing the influence of the Gary Ablett-led Suns midfield last weekend, Longmire said the Swans would have another challenge on their hands coming up against the Roos this week.

Longmire highlighted North Melbourne’s young and quick midfield and tall forward line as danger areas for the Swans in Hobart.

“Over the last couple of years (North Melbourne) have really added some speed to their team and have got some really quick players and they’ve got some big key power forwards in their forward line,” he said.

“They played finals last year and are a team that’s got some terrific young players and some key power forwards and a really solid defence, so they will be a real test for us.

“There’s obviously Daniel Wells, but there’s also (Jack) Ziebell, (Andrew) Swallow, (Ryan) Bastinac and a number of players who are capable of getting a lot of the ball, so we expect our midfield in particular to play well and to try and negate what they can do and try and give us some impact going forward.

“They’ve also got those tall forwards and also Lindsay Thomas who is kicking goals left, right and centre, so there are a few challenges all over the ground as there always is.”

Longmire added that he felt the Swans had made improvements over the last fortnight, but his team must continue to improve as the season rolls on.

“I thought the first quarter against the Giants and the last quarter on the weekend were as good footy as we’re played for a while,” he said.

“We improved in certainly how we finished the game and I was really pleased with the six-to-three goal last quarter and I thought our intensity up until the final siren was exactly what we wanted it to be.

“I thought that was a good improvement and we certainly ran the game out really strongly and that’s what we wanted to do.”