As Sydney coach Paul Roos fielded questions about how he could effectively cope with a mounting AFL injury list on Monday, a familiar figure strode past.

Noting the presence of one of Sydney's greatest forwards, Roos immediately perked up.

"The great Micky O'Loughlin could come back, there's an exclusive, contract negotiations ... to take over from Braddy (Daniel Bradshaw)," he joked.

"Look how happy he is, come and help us Mick!"

If only it was that easy. Roos' cry for help summed up where the Swans are at right now, for with too many players out of action, including the latest casualties Bradshaw and Tadhg Kennelly, the coach admitted he did not have the talent or experience to go with the best sides.

"We're a different team (from the start of the year), that's probably the most frustrating thing, and you know that's going to happen but you hope it's not going to happen all at once," he said.

"We're probably seven players different to what we were three weeks ago.

"The main thing is at the moment we just don't have the personnel to play against the better sides, so we do need to have a focus on our leadership group to stand up and we also want to educate our young players and give them a chance."

In Saturday's loss to Fremantle, Roos had criticised the lack of effort shown in the first half when the Dockers raced out to a 32-point halftime advantage.

He found more to like in the second half when a range of younger players stepped up as Bradshaw and Kennelly watched helplessly from the bench, and it is these tyros who must now learn quickly.

"From a positive point of view I think what we've got to focus on now depending on who comes back, is (Daniel) Hannebery, Lewis Jetta, Gary Rohan, Campbell Heath, Nick Smith, those guys really stepped up in the second half," said Roos.

"That's probably the focus area now if we get players back, and if we don't then there's some really exciting things happening within the footy club and we've really got to take the opportunity to play those young guys and give them big minutes.

"We had two guys on the bench in the second half, which allowed Lewis and Gary to play a different role."

Kennelly is expected to miss around three matches due to a medial ligament strain, while Bradshaw will be out for at least two weeks thanks to a knee problem that has yet to be properly diagnosed.

"I think they've scanned it and there's not much showing up on the scans but he's still pretty sore today so they just need to (check it out)," said Roos.

"It's the same knee (Bradshaw hurt in pre-season) but it's a different mechanism, he just went back on his leg, there was no specific incident where it happened.

"The early indications with Tadhg are around three weeks out, so you'd plan to have him back around week four, but he is very good at recovering so who knows, but at this stage we'd plan not to have him for the next three games."

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