COACH Paul Roos says this Sunday’s clash against the Brisbane Lions at Etihad Stadium will be a tough encounter for the Demons, given the Lions upset the Suns by 54 points at the Gabba last round.

Roos said his side, which is coming off the split round 18 break, needed to be ready for the much-improved Lions. 

“It was good for the Suns to run the Lions into some really good form,” he said with a wry smile on Roos’ Views.

“I was surprised and I think we all were – not necessarily the actual result, but the Suns in their development, I thought it was going to be a really, really competitive game. [Gold Coast coach] ’Bluey’ (Guy McKenna) mentioned he was pretty surprised.

“I was just super impressed by Brisbane – they played some terrific footy. Their midfield was really good: [Tom] Rockliff, [Dayne] Zorko and [Pearce] Hanley … their young defenders and forward line are starting to come together.

“They’re (Brisbane Lions) in a similar position to us. [Coach] Justin [Leppitsch] has done a terrific job and they had an exceptional game on the weekend, so we’re looking forward to testing ourselves against a team that’s in a similar position to what we are.”

Roos said his players returned from their break focused and ready to attack their final five matches for the season. 

“We had a really good training session this morning (Monday), so I was happy they came back really keen,” he said.

“As you’d expect, sometimes training sessions after a break can be really rusty and we trained for an hour and 15 to an hour and a half and did a really good session.

“Most of the guys seemed really relaxed and refreshed and the coaches are as well.

“The whole club’s really looking forward to the five-week bracket. In footy terms, there is only about 10 hours of football left in the season for us, so we need to play as well as we possibly can for all 10 of those hours.”

In terms of changes this round, Roos said he was likely to stick with a similar line-up to the team that fell three points short against Port Adelaide at Adelaide Oval last round.

“I was pretty pleased [last round against Port Adelaide] and [it was] certainly our best effort for five or six weeks I felt. I was really pleased,” he said.

“Port is a terrific side and to go over there and play in Adelaide against Port in a big crowd and big game – to keep them to 10 [goals] and just get nutted by three points, I thought was a really good effort.

“Most of our players really played their roles really well, so I wouldn’t think [there would be many changes]. We’ve just got to check on injuries and I’ve been looking through the Casey game to see how those players have performed as well.

“We also do need to look at a couple of guys over the next five weeks, in the context of what we’re trying to achieve and then move into pre-season, having a bit clearer understanding of who’s going to stay and who’s going to go.”