SYDNEY will consider selecting Barry Hall this week after Michael O'Loughlin was added to the club's injury list yesterday - and the likelihood increased that fellow forward Nick Davis has played his final game in red and white.
O'Loughlin suffered an ankle injury and full-back Leo Barry strained a hamstring in the Swans' victory over Carlton, leaving them with only two fit players on the bench in the second half.
Coach Paul Roos said yesterday it was too early to make a judgment on the availability of Hall, who was suspended indefinitely by the club, but he could return to play Adelaide next week.
"He will return when he is cleared to play both from [psychologist] Grant [Brecht] and myself and hopefully that is not too far away," Roos said. "Possibly [this week] but I don't know. I haven't really put a time-frame on it."
There's a lot less love for Hall's forward teammate Nick Davis, who is out for the rest of the year with a knee injury.
In a pre-match interview on Melbourne's Triple M, Roos disparaged Davis and said he had failed to attend training and rehab on Friday after telling the Herald he would love to play at West Coast next year.
Carlton have ruled themselves out of the race for Davis, adamant they would not be entertaining any trade for the sharpshooter.
Blues chief executive Greg Swann said Davis's manager had approached Carlton but he would not be at Princes Park in 2009.
"Not in a million years, no," Swann said. "We don't need him at our club."
Meanwhile, Roos said yesterday's win was significant because the Swans were undermanned and it came in Tadhg Kennelly's 150th game.
"They are special, you get four points for all of them but some wins are better because we were down and out - we had a number of players on the bench that couldn't come back on and we were playing against a team that were in really good form so to come back and win that game I thought was a terrific effort from our guys.
"Hopefully for us it is a significant step after some average weeks to get back and play good footy."
The spate of injuries revived the idea first raised by Richmond's Terry Wallace that the interchange bench should be expanded to permit new players to be introduced to cover those injured and unable to return to the field.
Roos said the issue should be debated.
The Swans won the match after conceding a 29-point lead to Carlton in the second quarter and despite the injuries and the poor game of dual Brownlow medallist Adam Goodes. Ryan O'Keefe also hurt an ankle but managed to come back on and have an important role in the win, but Goodes finished with just seven touches after being soundly beaten by Bryce Gibbs.
"[O'Keefe] wasn't 100 per cent, so we weren't able to use him in the roles," Roos said. "To his credit, it was significant he was able to go forward, particularly with those guys on the bench. He couldn't really run, he couldn't really move the way he would like to so we were able to put him deep and he kicked a couple of critical goals for us."
The Swans coach said the club needed to urgently address the number of free kicks they were giving away that resulted in goals.
"I think they had five free-kick goals in the first half so that makes it really really hard. It is an issue that we are getting a lot of free-kick goals against us and that is something we need to address," he said.
The Swans shut down Chris Judd and Nick Stevens, holding them to just 14 and 11 touches respectively. Judd had only four in the second half as Brett Kirk and Luke Ablett won their contests.
Roos said with Judd operating more as an inside player than a running player this year, he felt Kirk would be better a match-up on the Blues skipper.
Roos also paid tribute to Kennelly after the game.
"For what he represents to us as a footy club, the sacrifices he has made to come across here, that was spoken about before the game," he said.
With AAP



