IF IT wasn't for the vigilant interchange stewards, you'd have sworn Sydney had more men on the field. Thankfully, official word was that it didn't, and we were spared another week of interchange controversy.

Ask Paul Roos what has improved the Swans — who in the minds of some were on the cusp of a plunge this year, given the toll their relentless approach takes — and he reels off the names of youngsters Jarred Moore, Craig Bird and Kieren Jack.

After the final siren yesterday, the coach, who is never one to overstate Sydney's performances, was positively glowing in his praise.

"It was a very, very good effort. I think at the moment, we've got probably our best team … apart from Hally," he said, careful not to forget injured and suspended spearhead Barry Hall after the 82-point win that was achieved easily without him.

Roos enthused that it was the best balanced side he had directed for some time. It didn't remind him of Sydney's 2005 premiership season, he said, but more of 2003 when a couple of names that are now well known — Brett Kirk and Leo Barry — bobbed up as pleasant surprises and helped steer the Swans to a preliminary final.

Moore, Bird and Jack may well do the same this year. But there is now also a healthy bunch of recycled players, all only recently relocated to the Harbour City, who would rightfully take credit as well.

Marty Mattner, formerly of Adelaide, yesterday made obvious for a second consecutive week why the Swans were so keen to add him to their already impressive half-back line. He is as creative as he is hard, and was among the best players after a game where the plaudits could have been raffled.

One-time Cat Henry Playfair, while not show-stopping in his fourth outing in red and white, kicked two majors, and in another week without Hall, was part of a forward combination that is doing just fine without the big, bad bustling one.

In the middle, ex-Hawk Peter Everitt and former Demon Darren Jolly interchanged. Between them, they smashed Richmond's chief big man — and no slouch, either — Troy Simmonds. Jolly had 39 hitouts, Everitt — in only his fourth match this year since returning from a knee injury — had 11, while Simmonds had a paltry 18.

Last year, Everitt's first with the Swans, he and Jolly began a promising partnership, finishing sixth and ninth in the club's best-and-fairest award respectively. But yesterday, in the eyes of Roos, signalled a watershed moment.

"I thought the two of them today probably had their best game as a duo … which is good," he said. "They really complement each other. Peter's a really smart player and Jol's has actually become a lot more aggressive with his running, both offensively and defensively."

Jolly, a footballer who had serious baggage after the 2006 grand final — a one-point loss for the Swans when they clearly lacked a dominant big man — knows now that he has matured just as his new club hoped he would.

"The coaches have given me a bit of a licence to take off when we have the footy, and it sort of catches the other ruckmen off a little bit; having the confidence to run more and back my agility and athleticism to get off ruckman and to run away from them," he said.

Like Moore, Bird and Jack, Mattner and Playfair, the flourishing Jolly-Everitt union is just another piece that looks to have firmly clicked in place in the ever-impressive Sydney puzzle.

"We've got a really good balance between defence and attack," were the broad terms Roos chose late in his press conference.

One of the competition's most famously even units becoming even more so? Precisely.