He's still not familiar with all the AFL lingo, but Sydney's Canadian-born ruckman Mike Pyke is no longer a fish out of water according to Swans coach Paul Roos.

Coming to the end of his second AFL season, the former Canadian Test rugby back has impressed observers after playing the last 10 games.

Pyke is looking for a new contract next season and Roos, who will leave the club at the end of this year, believes he deserves one.

The 26-year-old has formed a strong ruck tandem with Shane Mumford in the absence of Mark Seaby.

"We think he (Pyke) has done an exceptional job. Probably because Mummy (Mumford) has been playing so well, he probably hasn't got the kudos that he perhaps could have," Roos said on Friday.

"Last year he struggled in a lot of areas, (but) his tap work was very, very good.

"If someone came to their first game, you would have to point out that this is a Canadian rugby player now playing AFL football, I think that's the biggest compliment you can give Pykey.

"No longer does he look like a fish out of water, he just looks like another one of the 22 out there.

"He looks like a ruckman who knows where to go and gets his hand on the ball and he's taking contested marks and getting to the right spots. I think he's really turned the corner.

"He's obviously become a pretty important player for us."

While Roos won't be making any decisions about next year's list, he expected the club would re-sign Pyke.

"I would have thought given where he is at at the moment, he would definitely be around the footy club."

Pyke thought he had done enough to earn a new contract.

"I think now I've proven that I can hold the second ruck role and I think that I've proven I'm learning where to go on the field and when to be there and hopefully the club comes to the decision to keep me on," Pyke said.

He stressed he wanted to remain with the Swans, but would definitely consider looking for another AFL club if they didn't want to retain his services.

Pyke admitted he was quite overwhelmed trying to grasp the skills of Australian Rules after he first arrived at the Swans.

"I looked at guys who had been there for years, Irish guys like Brendan Murphy and thought `geez I'm a fair bit off that, am I really going to be here in six months?'.

"Then once I got the basic skills I started getting confident and getting eight games last year was a large bonus."

While more comfortable out on the ground than when he started, Pyke was still getting to grips with the code's terminology.

"The players actually rib me a fair bit," Pyke said.

"I still yell for a ball on the sideline, I still call it the play-offs and I call the umpires referees and I call them penalties and not free kicks."

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