NORTH Melbourne skipper Andrew Swallow says he took some positive steps against West Coast on Sunday night, but is confident his game can still rise "another couple of levels".
Swallow has played three senior games since returning from a ruptured left Achilles tendon and against the Eagles had 21 possessions, nine tackles, four clearances and kicked a goal.
But it was the aggressive way he hunted the ball at stoppages that suggested the rust he carried in his first two games back, against the Brisbane Lions and Geelong, was starting to wear off.
Swallow said on Tuesday he was still "underdone" and had a fair bit of work to do to get back to his best.
"I really struggled against Geelong, just struggled to get involved in the contest and just to play at the intensity required," Swallow said.
"But I thought I was much improved on Sunday night and I've still probably got another couple of levels to go to.
"There's still a fair bit of work to do and then a fair bit of time to get that done consistently."
Swallow is set to play his 150th game this Sunday night against Richmond, but says he has felt like a youngster starting out again since coming back from the injury he suffered against Melbourne in round 18 last year.
The North skipper said if he had been returning from injury a few years ago he probably would have felt more pressure to get back to his best as quickly possible, with the improvement of Sam Gibson and Levi Greenwood this year and the addition of Nick Dal Santo decreasing the Roos' reliance on him.
North's 38-point win over West Coast was its second at Patersons Stadium this year and followed a victory over the Sydney Swans at the SCG.
The Roos are also the only team to defeat ladder leader Port Adelaide in 2014, but inconsistency has plagued them and they have not won consecutive games since round four.
Swallow said North was not getting carried away with the Eagles win and realised that Richmond would be "pretty excited" to atone for their dismal 50-point loss to Essendon last Saturday night.
North looked really flat the week after its previous trip to Perth, conceding the first seven goals of the round seven match against Gold Coast before being beaten by 43 points.
Swallow said the Roos would not make any changes to their preparation ahead of this Sunday's game, but suggested the leadership group would ride the players hard at training.
"We'll just probably make sure we're hard on the guys at training to make sure we get the same intensity that we have been getting after a loss," Swallow said.
"We don't want to have fluctuations between a win and a loss. We want to make sure that we're getting that consistent effort and we've got to get that at training.
"That's what we'll be impressing on the boys."
