Sydney coach Paul Roos has lavished praise upon prize AFL recruit Peter Everitt and is encouraged by his team's forward depth given the possible absence of Barry Hall this weekend.

The Swans are faced with the prospect of possibly going into Sunday's SCG clash against Brisbane without Hall, in addition to fellow forward Nick Davis.

Hall strained a medial ligament in Saturday's win over Richmond, while Davis is currently out of action after hurting a foot in the opening round fixture with West Coast.

While Roos is hopeful his champion centre half-forward and co-captain would be fit for Sunday's encounter, he was encouraged by how the Swans attack coped without their talismanic leader.

The Swans barely missed a beat when Hall was off the ground during last Saturday's game.

"If he (Hall) doesn't play this week, we played a fair bit without him last week and even when he was on he was deep forward and more of a decoy than really a key forward," Roos said.

"It was good. I thought Ted Richards was good, Mick (O'Louglin) was good, Ryan O'Keefe played his usual game, Tadhg (Kennelly) and our defenders floating down there was really important as well.

"I thought the way our forward line functioned, considering Hally was either way below his best in terms of his fitness, or wasn't out there at all, was very encouraging."

Roos felt the progression of Ryan O'Keefe to All-Australian level and the emergence of Adam Schneider, Amon Buchanan and Richards had been important for the Swans.

Together with the established credentials of veteran Michael O'Loughlin, Roos thought Sydney had more forward options to play with than when he first took over the coaching reins halfway through the 2002 campaign.

"I think we probably have got a few more options and that's what's made us a good team over the last four years and more particularly the last couple of years," Roos said.

Following a quiet Sydney debut against the Eagles, Everitt sparked Sydney's improved display against Richmond with 28 hit outs, 18 possessions, nine marks and two goals.

"We probably didn't necessarily want him or need him to play as well as he did on the weekend, but if he keeps doing that, I will be more than happy," Roos said.

"That's probably above and beyond what we were expecting him to do, but it just shows what a quality player he is, that he can dominate a game in 60 minutes.

"If he and Jols (Sydney's other ruckman Darren Jolly) can keep working in tandem like they have in the first couple of rounds, it makes us a better side, no doubt."

Roos said Jared Crouch would probably come back through the reserves this weekend.

He was looking for young key back Lewis Roberts-Thomson to return to action from a foot injury by round nine.

Roos said unbeaten Brisbane was a young team with some quality veterans.

"They've got some youth, some real grunt and they tackle really hard, they run," Roos said.

"You can't do much more than win your first two games, so they've been impressive."

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