The Roos were a polished and aggressive unit against the undermanned Lions, but now face a stern test as part of the AFL's three-tiered fixturing system, which has the top teams from the previous season regularly facing each other in the following year.

Through the course of the next six weeks, the Roos will tackle Port Adelaide, Geelong (Simonds Stadium), Hawthorn, Richmond, Essendon and Fremantle at Domain Stadium.

Little wonder veteran Drew Petrie said on Tuesday any judgments on his team should wait until "after the next four-or-five-week block".

The immediate task, dealing with a stung - and winless - Power at Etihad Stadium on Saturday, appears likely to be done without Nick Dal Santo (hamstring) and possibly Daniel Wells (achilles). Dal Santo will visit a specialist this week, while Scott Thompson is also nursing a sore ankle.

Shaun Higgins, enjoying a strong start at his new club, agreed on Tuesday that the Roos faced a stern test.

"Looking across the board for probably all of the top four or six teams from last year [the fixture] is interesting and that's probably why the ladder is the way it is at the moment," Higgins said.

"The top sides from last year are coming up against each other now and it makes for a pretty exciting draw.

"It's a challenging block of four weeks for us, but I think we'll just look at this week and we'll take it, as they say, one week at a time."

Petrie has called on the team leaders to play a key role in negotiating the way through what could be a treacherous path, declaring "it always gets back to the senior players setting the tone".

Ruckman Todd Goldstein, Wells and Higgins (24 disposals, two goals) were impressive against the Lions. So, too, was Jarrad Waite with seven goals, with the former Blue working well alongside Ben Brown and Petrie - the trio alternating between positions deep and high inside 50.

That leadership was not there in the season-opening debacle against the Crows in Adelaide, prompting Fairfax Media columnist Wayne Carey to concede his former club, a preliminary finalist last year, could not win the flag because of a lack of mental strength.

Higgins said it could be some time before the Roos redeemed themselves.

"I don't think we'll redeem ourselves from that performance in one, two or even four weeks' time," Higgins said.

"It's what we do for the remainder of the season. There's a really good challenge this week for us [with Port Adelaide] and over the next few weeks and the remainder of this year.

"We're not going to get too carried away with the [Lions] win just as we didn't get too down about the loss.

"We just took out of it what we needed to improve, spoke about it, had a really good discussion last week, bounced back and we'll continue to do that for the remainder of the season."

What is clear is that an almost frenzied-like defensive pressure is required to topple the elite teams, as shown by the Swans in their win over the Power, and the Bombers in their rousing comeback against the Hawks.

Higgins said the Roos understood what's required.

"It's amazing the pressure that's gone on in the AFL across the board, and the sides that bring the heat and bring the pressure on the ball and the opposition come away with the wins, and we weren't able to do that in round one," he said.

"We were able to do that last week and we look forward to the challenge of doing that again this week."