In the past two seasons Sydney have competed in some of the most tight, intense games ever played, but coach Paul Roos believes that when it comes to kicking for goal, some of his players have become like Bambi in night-time traffic.

Sydney could have beaten Adelaide on Saturday night. If they had kicked straight, they would have. The Swans finished with 5.14, not only their lowest output under Roos but their worst score since booting 5.11 against Carlton in round 21, 1997.

The poor return may result in sharpshooter Nick Davis - who certainly does not suffer Bambi syndrome - being rushed back into the seniors ahead of schedule following his recovery from a foot injury sustained in round one.

On Saturday, Sydney lost the chance to take the crowd out of the game early and give themselves momentum when their first five scoring shots were behinds - their last five of the game were also all behinds. From 10 set shots at goal, they kicked two goals and eight behinds.

"Some of them don't want to kick, I think," Roos said of his players yesterday. "I think their first thought is almost, 'Oh geez, I've got the ball, I've got a shot for goal', rather than, 'I'm going to take this and if it misses it misses, but I'm going to put it through'.

"There were some very tentative efforts for goal, which should result in goals, but because of the mindset of the player taking the shot … they look like they don't want to kick for goal and, then, they don't kick it.

"There's only two options that can happen. You either kick it or you miss it. So why be fearful of missing it? We don't drag anyone off for missing a goal. Just go back and kick the goal. It's not splitting the atom. You're not taking an exploratory excursion to Mars. I think that's the attitude the players should take and I'm not sure why they're not."

The two set shots that were converted came from ruckman Darren Jolly, who twice during the third quarter floated forward, took two marks, went back and confidently kicked the goals which put Sydney back in the game.

"Darren Jolly is the classic example," Roos said. "He marked two out front, went back, and slotted them. He looked confident, looked like he was going to kick them and he kicked them. His mindset was just completely different. His mindset was almost like, 'Well, no one else is kicking them, someone better and I'll do it'.

"He really took a step forward in that leadership and development role last night."

Sydney had the worst goal conversion rate in the AFL this season - 41 goals, 55 behinds or 42.7 per cent - until Carlton kicked 4.15 yesterday to drop to 41.5 per cent.

Yet Sydney is doing plenty right defensively, keeping Adelaide to 9.7. "It's a game you should win, and you don't and if we keep kicking like that - and they are gettable goals - we're going to lose more games," Roos said.

"Five-14 … that's appalling. You have 19 scoring shots to the opposition's 16, you have 41 inside 50ms to the opposition's 38, you beat them in clearances and all that stuff, and we put enough pressure on them, but the difference at the end of the game is their ability to convert versus ours, end of story.

"We kept them to 9.7, so we're doing a hell of a lot of things right, it's just our ball use going forward and our goal kicking which have stopped us being 4-0 [wins-losses] rather than 2-2."

Roos said there was no magical solution to the problem other than more practice and better confidence.

Roos conceded Davis may return this week after returning to training. While he would ideally have found some match fitness in the reserves, he could come into consideration for selection in the team to meet Melbourne on Saturday at the SCG.

"It's always hard with Davo because he's missed a bit of footy, but one thing you always know with Davo is when the ball is in his hand, he generally makes things happen," Roos said. "So that's something we'll have to discuss at match committee [meeting on Wednesday] to make sure he's fit, firstly.

"But he certainly comes under consideration when you come off a game where you kick 5.14, and where everything else is going pretty well. You're trying to address a problem, and he's one who can immediately address that situation."