COACH Paul Roos says he’s keen to keep at least one of James Frawley or Lynden Dunn up forward in the foreseeable future.

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Roos said the regular defenders had given the team a genuine option in attack and he was hopeful that at least one of them could continue up forward.

“I’d certainly love to keep one of Dunn or Frawley forward in the medium term,” he said.

Roos said Frawley and Dunn were shifted up forward “to change the focus of the team”. 

“We didn’t have many forwards [due to injury], so [Chris] Dawes coming back helps us moving forward,” he said.

“It’d be hard to move him (Frawley) back after his game on the weekend. I thought he played exceptionally well, but having said that – it’s going to be hard to keep both Dunn and Frawley forward, week in, week out, because they’re both really good defenders.”

Roos said Jack Grimes, Tom McDonald and Dean Terlich had played strongly in defence with Frawley and Dunn up forward.

Small forward Jay Kennedy-Harris also earned Roos’ praise for his first full AFL match, after starting as the substitute in the opening three rounds. 

“[Kennedy-Harris] was a bit like Dawesy [and eager to play]. Kennedy-Harris came to me and said ‘can I play this week, can I play this week?’ I said ‘I don’t know, leave it with me, I know the bloke who picks the team’,” he said.

“I spoke to him before the game and said ‘don’t worry, you’re in’.

“I thought his response was really good. He’s been consistent. He’s a young kid, but his effort levels were really high and his energy is high and I know the players love playing with him. I thought he was terrific on the weekend.”  

Roos said the Demons wouldn’t rest on their laurels, with “a lot more hard work” to follow from the win over Carlton.

“It’s a small step, but it’s important for the player group. [It’s more about] the effort and the sustained effort we had for four quarters and that’s the minimum standard that we’re trying to set every single week. It’s probably the main take out of the weekend.”

“I know the heat’s on Mick and Carlton at the moment, but they’ve got some good players and it was a pretty good game of footy – and they did a lot of things right,” he said.

“They missed five shots at goal early in the last quarter and we were able to come up with a win against, what we think, is a pretty competitive, pretty good side.

“They’ve had good quarters of footy and had a good second half against Richmond, so we were certainly really pleased with the win.”

He said he was most pleased with his side’s tackle count.

“We tackled really, really well and that just keeps you in a lot of games,” Roos said.

“We didn’t tackle well the week before, in terms of numbers against the Giants. That was probably the best individual stat from the weekend.”

Roos said it was important that the players enjoyed the win and he was adamant they wouldn’t get carried away with the win “by any stretch of the imagination”.

“They’ve been down this path before and they’re appreciative of the win.”