After a quiet first quarter, McVeigh moved on to a rampant Chris Judd and quelled the Carlton skipper’s influence while gathering 17 disposals and booting three crucial goals of his own.
It was a accomplished display that showcased the 24-year-old’s defensive and offensive abilities, and one that will give opposition coaches plenty of food for thought in coming weeks.
Roos said the fact that McVeigh spent the early part of his career tagging opposition players had helped to make him such a versatile player.
“Sometimes when you do get tagged, blokes that get tagged week in, week out don’t really have a defensive side to their game, and 'Macca' has that,” he said on Monday.
“You can take him and put him on to a guy that’s a dangerous player and you’ve got a lot of confidence in him being able to do that.
“It makes it a little bit harder for other teams to be able to set themselves for a guy like Jarrad McVeigh, because you can always move him on to their best midfielder as we were able to do on the weekend.
Roos was reluctant to include McVeigh among the game’s elite midfielders, but he said the reigning Bob Skilton Medallist was a consistently damaging player for the Swans.
“While we’re bringing in the young players, he makes us a lot more dangerous through that area of the ground. With 'Goodesy' (Adam Goodes) and 'Macca', you generally have a couple of players that opposition teams really have to target, and 'Kirky' (Brett Kirk) often gets a tagger as well.
“You can put a Macca to a Judd – when you’re often scratching your head as to what you can do – and he made a significant difference to the game when he went there.
“He’s still a developing midfielder [who’s] consistently performing well last year and at the start of this year. He’s certainly getting up towards that [elite] status, but he’s only young in his career.”
