While the Sydney Swans have fallen backwards into the finals, coach Paul Roos says he will use the next fortnight to finetune his line-up - even if it means giving his most important players a week off for Saturday's match against Brisbane at the SCG.

Any players showing signs of injury, fatigue or loss of form could well find themselves on the sidelines as Roos tries to find a way to dig his side out of a malaise in which it has lost six of its past eight matches.

While Roos conceded after Saturday night's loss to Collingwood that it was "unlikely we're going to do much damage" in September, he's hoping to cajole his playing group into one final charge. "I think you've got to find the balance, and we've got two weeks," he said. "Obviously, this game's important on Saturday night, but more from the point of view of how we set up for the first final.

"We know it doesn't mean anything in terms of getting in and out of finals, so we've got to take the opportunity if we need to rest some players. The positive is that we've got a week to get ourselves sorted out and try and get ourselves into a position where we can compete against St Kilda, Adelaide or Collingwood, or whoever we play in the first week of the finals."

Roos said players would be rested if it was thought they would benefit from the break. "There's certainly a number that will come into consideration in terms of, 'Do they need a rest', but I think it's more about, 'Can they benefit from a rest'. Sometimes one week off doesn't make much difference, it's more from a medical point of view," Roos said.

"We're like every club at the moment - you have players who are sore and tired and all those sorts of things. We're not going to name names, but we'll discuss whether or not they need to be rested this week in order to give us a really good crack at the following week."

Roos said that while dual Brownlow Medallist Adam Goodes was likely to be given a week off and running defender Nick Malceski may also be kept out, key forward Michael O'Loughlin could return after missing the past five matches with a torn hamstring. "[O'Loughlin] is one we'd like to play," he said.

"He ran a bit better last week and he seemed a lot more positive in terms of whether he'd play this week. I haven't caught up with the medical staff or with Mick, but we'd certainly like to give him a game this week, obviously if he's healthy.

"Like Mick, we'd like to get [Malceski] in because he's an important player in the team, but he just seems a little bit out of sorts so we thought we'd probably give him a couple of really solid weeks of training. So we'll see how he goes on Tuesday and Thursday night at training.

"There's no point in playing him if he's still a little bit down on confidence."

Asked to elaborate on his prognosis following the defeat to the Magpies, Roos said he was about to find out if it was the end of a memorable era for the Swans. "I think the next couple of weeks will tell [if it's the end], I guess there's certainly some signs. And I guess that's to be expected if you play in the finals series for five or six years," Roos said.

"But I think you've got to give some credit to the group. Even though we're not playing great footy at the moment, to make the finals six years in a row with things the way it is with the salary cap and the draft, it's enormously challenging.

"Is it the end? We'll see in the next couple of weeks and moving into next year."